


Double Pride, Double Trouble

by SrebrnaFH



Category: Lottie and Lisa, Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen, The Parent Trap (1998)
Genre: Baking, Cuddling, Darcy children, Evil Anne De Bourgh, Evil Lady Catherine, F/F, F/M, Family Reunions, Gen, Implied/Referenced Drug Use, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Implied/Referenced Underage Sex, Lots of sweets, M/M, Not so angelic Jane, Not so stiff William, Puppy Love, Separation, Sequel to non canonical modern retelling, Singing, Slightly broken Lizzy, Stupid Mrs Bennet, Summer Camp, Twins, Younger generation romance, canon-typical sex offense, hand holding
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-11-26
Updated: 2019-01-31
Packaged: 2019-02-07 08:11:00
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 38
Words: 306,333
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12836949
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SrebrnaFH/pseuds/SrebrnaFH
Summary: Bennet and Darcy met at a summer camp and immediately hated each other. They were just too similar for this to end peacefully.orHow to get Lizzy and Will to finally agree on some topic.





	1. Because we are too similar

**Author's Note:**

> This started as a oneshot, but then some new scenes just popped up in my brain. I'll be posting them as soon as I manage to put them in reasonable order.
> 
> The story will be borrowing from both the original book (Lottie and Lisa/Double Lotte) and Parents Trap (which is based on the book, but not exactly). And, obviously, from P&P. Think P&P 1995, but modern.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mina and Rose get into trouble

"Darcy! Get off her this instant!"

Everyone froze. Two bodies, just a second ago entwined on the soft surface, went rigid.

"Get. Off. Her. Now."

The trainer's voice was ice calm.

Darcy sprung up and stood to the side, trying to dust the worst dirt off the colorful t-shirt.

"Get up, lass" the other trainer drawled and helped Bennet up. "Now, we'll go to the camp counselor and she'll sort you out."

Crowd parted, letting the small parade through. Both miscreants regained their breath enough to start hissing at each other in barely-restrained anger.

"Quiet, both of you" the trainer had had enough. "I don't care for 'your fault', 'your problem' and whatever else you can think of. Keep it for the HQ. You can try to explain yourselves to _her_."

Both girls groaned.

* * *

Mina Bennet hated Rose Darcy from the very bottom of her fourteen year old heart.

Rose had it all.

Rose had riding lessons and travels.

Rose had a big country house.

However the fact Mina hated the most was that Rose had a father. Father who took her riding and bought her a pony and a huge dog.

It was slightly mitigated by the fact that she didn't have a _mother_ , but still.

Mina hated Rose and her stupid riding hat and, especially, her long, wavy hair and the ability to braid it in a wrist-thick braid.

* * *

Rose Darcy hated Mina Bennet with her entire, fourteen year old soul.

Mina had it all.

Mina had a huge family with cousins and aunts and uncles that came for Christmas and sang.

Mina played the piano and got singing lessons.

Mina could walk to school on her own, like a grownup.

Mina had a mother. A mother who packed her suitcase and baked her cookies and send her a card and a box of sweets every weekend.

Well, she didn't have a father, but she _did_ have a mother, which was enviable.

Rose hated Mina, with her short-cropped hair that didn't need washing and drying for an hour and with her ability to use a watch to find north.

* * *

They both stood in front of the "camp HQ", Maria Hill, who was looking at some papers, deep in thought.

"HQ, I've brought Bennet and Darcy. They were at it again."

Both girls squirmed.

"Again" was quite correct. Ever since they bumped into each other at first lunch the tension was there. One of Mina's friends suggested she should bite off Rose's nose, just to make sure they are different. Mina was privately horrified of the idea, but loudly exclaimed that she would have been sick if she tried to bite something _that_ filthy.

At that point whole dining room went quiet and absolutely everyone, including whole staff, looked at Mina and Rose in surprise.

From that point everything went steadily worse.

A fistful of bugs down the shirt.

An earthworm in the salad bowl.

A… something squishy in the shoe.

Glue and honey on the door handle.

Toothpaste on everything, more or less.

Bucket of water over the door.

Farting pillow under the mattress.

Kitchen alarms seeded through the cabin, set to various times.

Rope of bells across the windows.

Basically, everything, and slightly more, what you can find in an average camper's duffle or backpack. Or two.

After a stern reprimand from the HQ (after she found the seat of her pants covered in peanut butter) both seemed to keep apart as much as the camp size allowed.

However there was only one gym, and it seemed someone's equipment migrated into someone else's training area, something got kicked, something else got thrown, some light punches followed, along with some very distinguished name-calling. By the time the fencing trainer arrived, both girls were squirming among Darcy's yoga pants and socks, Bennet's talcum bottle (cap off) and some small weights.

Still trying to dust themselves off, they waited for HQ to pronounce her verdict.

She raised her glasses to her forehead and regarded them in silence.

More squirming.

"I have no idea what to do with you. I'm almost determined to call your parents and demand they take you away. You're disrupting everyone's rest and play. There are factions supporting each of you. There are parties organised around your conflict. This is damaging the camp's spirit. I say, no more."

She paused and sighed.

"I hate to call the parents, because I always feel I could have done more. However, theoretically… Darcy, what would your Dad do if he knew you were involved in a _fight_ "

Rose looked at her toes.

"He would probably cut your riding time and added some stall-mucking time, wouldn't he? Bennet? And you?"

Mina swallowed.

"I suppose Mom would give me a ton of chores" she sighed. "And then sent to mind the garden. And…"

"Well. I don't have any garden around and Darcy's horse stall isn't around to be mucked out. However both of you will serve as kitchen helpers for the next week. And you'll move to a separate cabin. Only the two of you. For the remainder of the camp you'll be placed in the same work, craft, sport and chores group, and will be given the same tasks. You will stay together all day and night, no matter what. If you can't stop making others miserable with your behaviour, at least for a big chunk of time you'll be only getting on each other's nerves."

Rose shot Mina a death glare while the other girl ground her teeth.

"Dismissed. Ask Miss Sarah in and wait for her in front of my office."


	2. While still being so different

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rose and Mina are forced to spend all their time together.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I think I have this more or less planned. It will not be perfectly polished, but I hope it will still be some fun for you to read :)

Their things were packed in a matter of minutes and their cabin mates regarded them sorrowfully (some, however, with hidden relief) as they trudged down the lane to the last cabin of the camp. It was separated from the other, lived-in cabins by a few empty ones and had the form of an old farmhouse - it had been there since the camp had been built, just after the war, most probably.

Mina crawled up the stairs, dragging her backpack, her shoulder bag and the guitar and immediately deposited them on the bed closer to the door.

Rose had to pull up a rolling suitcase, which took her more time and much more sweat. She made an annoyed sound, seeing the closer bed taken, but silently marched to the other bed and flopped bonelessly on it.

"You are expected in the kitchen in twenty minutes" they heard from the outside and groaned - for once in total agreement.

 

Mina was heroically chopping the cabbage for the big soup pot, trying not to smirk in amusement as Rose was getting dressed down by the main cook for being unable to peel potatoes. The poor girl apparently had never ever done anything in the kitchen, but was more than unwilling to admit it.

Well, cabbage was all chopped, and the carrots were waiting, but Rose was pouting in the corner, being set to wash the apples for the afternoon. Mina couldn't really imagine a house in which a kid would _not_ be able to peel a stupid potato by the age of fourteen.

 

Rose delighted in watering the plants. There was something immensely satisfying in tending to a garden. She was never allowed to do this at home - not since Aunt Catherine found out that one could actually get dirty in the garden. Ever since, trying to get something to grow was a battle Rose waged on her own windowsill, covering the attempts at making a beanstalk climb with "school project".

Mina wasn't doing quite as well. She had managed to drop her seed packet, step in mole hills three times and almost sat on a rake. She was muddy, dirty and rather annoyed. And what was worse, Rose was absolutely perfect at that stuff, while Mina couldn't wait to get away from the dirt, the poking tools and the weeds she was supposed to magically distinguish from carrot.

 

Rose was dying of boredom. Sewing. SEWING. There were machines in the world for a purpose. She couldn't keep an even stitch and she never planned to need one. The idea of sewing a plush toy "for a sister or a cousin" was making her actually angry. She didn't have anyone to give a plushie to.

Mina was in heaven. This was like all the times when Mom allowed her to dig up the bags of yarn and patchwork pieces and pick her own design. Mom never used faux fur, so this was even better, because once she came home, she would be able to show Mom something only _Mina_ knew how to do!

 

And so it went, hour by hour, sports, crafts, singing, field trips and kitchen duty. Each trying to talk to the other as little as possible, despite the fact that mostly they had only each other for company - including meals, as Mrs Hill managed to set up an isolation table only for them, too.

 

Mina was on a verge of strangling the pouty, huffing and mumbling Rose, especially during meals. She had never felt as much under scrutiny, even during the family dinners when Grandma discussed everyone's manners with relish - usually focusing on Mina's lack thereof - as when Rose looked at her elbow propped on the table with such revulsion.

On the other hand, Rose seemed quite unable to do _anything_ by herself that was more complicated than brushing her hair. Every stuck window was a reason for complaining.

 

Rose wanted nothing more than for Mina to get lost in the woods. The superiority of the girl was getting on her nerves each and every second. She could do _everything_. Pull a splinter out with her tweezers - she _had_ special tweezers in her backpack! Hang a rope to dry her clothes. Open stupid stuck windows.

Still, she ate like a little kid, forgetting to use the knife properly and sometimes trying to cut with her fork, being obviously too lazy to behave properly.

 

The cabin was rather drafty and they both sat on their cots, carefully wrapped in layers of blankets.

They day promised to be ugly and all sport and activities were cancelled due to the risk of heavy rain. Even the computers in the rec room were shut down, just in case a storm came later. Everyone took their food from the cafeteria and skipped trying to eat it in the windy barn of a dining room, taking the plates and cups to their cabins, with adults carefully not noticing that breach in camp rules.

Rose was nibbling on a sandwich in her left hand, typing something on her tablet at the same time, when a gust of wind across their floor actually _moved_ her slippers.

“All right, enough is enough” Mina said and stood up. “Come on, we need to fix it.”

As Rose stared at her in wonder, she pulled on her boots and marched out. Rose caught up to he at the back of the cabin.

“What are you doing?” she asked, looking at Mina in surprise.

“I’m quite sure that draft is not supposed to be that strong. Ah, you see? There is a plank that doesn’t sit between the others properly. Good thing the nail is still in it. Wait a moment. I'll try to find another, so it sits better.”

She was back in a minute, holding a rather rusty nail and a complicated tool.

“That’s a multihammer” she explained. “Got it for my birthday, from my aunt. Best gift _ever_.”

She carefully placed the plank back where it was supposed to be and hammered the nail home, adding a few taps at the end to drive it as deep as it could go.

Rose nodded.

“I got pliers like this. But aunt Anne took them away. She’s not really that big on me doing stuff by myself. She fought against me coming here, too. I think she still feels I’m just a kid.”

“Crazy. We’re fourteen. It’s not like we’re toddlers or babies. I feel quite up to the challenge of spending two months away from home. And of using a hammer.”

She lined up the second nail and bashed on its head in satisfaction until it was flush with the wood.

“This should do it” she wiped her hands on her knees. “Dear auntie Jane, I have to tell her I used it for something serious, finally.”

Rose licked her lips.

"Aunt Jane?"

"M-hm."

“Funny thing” Rose said “I got my pliers from an aunt also named Jane, just before she told me about this camp. And…” she pulled the hammer from Mina’s hand slowly. “My pliers look like they came from the same set…”

Mina frowned.

"Like what?"

"Well, they have the same kind of decoration and the handles are pink with these holes in them" Rose pointed. "That's weird."

She handed the hammer back to Mina, who looked at it, frowning.

"Let's go inside. I have some cookies from my mom, if you want...?"

Rose's eyes widened.

"Sure!"

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The hammer I'm thinking of is [this](https://sc02.alicdn.com/kf/HTB12W4LKpXXXXarXFXXq6xXFXXXv/Pink-multi-purpose-hammer.jpg) and next to it you can partially see the pliers.


	3. We think the same thoughts

The cabin wasn't very big. Two beds, a dresser, a table, two rickety chairs and a wardrobe left very little free floor space - just enough to move one of the chairs to the middle of the rug and put a box of cookies on it. It was just close enough to let them reach towards said box comfortably from both beds. They sat in silence, munching the cookies and looking suspiciously at each other across the tiny room.  
Mina gathered her courage first.  
"So... Your aunt Jane gave these pliers to you?"  
"Aunt Jane."  
"And she was the one who told you about this camp?"  
"Yep" Rose accented the 'p' with a pop.  
Mina reached behind her bed and picked up her tablet.  
"And does your aunt Jane have a husband?"  
Rose frowned.  
"She does. Actually, it's more like that husband is more my uncle, because he's dad's best friend, and aunt Jane is just his wife. They aren't like, related to us, or anything, but dad always said that uncle Charles is like a brother he could freely pick for himself, instead of being assigned one at birth. Will you please explain what this third degree is about?"  
Mina nodded slowly and turned the tablet on, then spent some time swiping through screens.  
"Would that be aunt Jane and uncle Charles Bingley?" she handed the tablet to Rose, showing her a photo of a group of people sitting to a Christmas dinner. "These two? Because I know them as my Mom's oldest sister and her husband. _And_ the people responsible for me being here, on this camp."  
Rose grabbed the tablet, gasping.  
"That's... That's my aunt! And my uncle! And... I never knew they had that many kids! Dad always says they don't bring any because aunt Catherine hates toddlers."  
"Grandma would go _bonkers_ if they ever decided to come to any family party without them. I may be the eldest in the whole generation, but she says that the more, the better. She loves aunt Jane more than my Mom because of this" Mina made a face.  
Rose hiccoughed.  
"Now" Mina hugged the tablet to herself "you see where this is going, don't you?"  
Rose nodded slowly.  
"You think that if my aunt Jane and uncle Charles - who are my dad's best friend and his wife - are actually your aunt Jane and uncle Charles - who are your actual aunt and her husband - are the same people, then..."  
"Yep. My Mom and your dad are actually our parents. We're twins. And Mom and dad have some explaining to do."  
"Also, aunt Jane will have some explaining to do, when our p-parents" Rose stuttered here "find out that she manipulated _both_ of them into letting us come here."  
Mina clasped her hands over her mouth.  
"Mom will kill her. She wanted to take me to the seaside and take aunt Kitty and her kids with us, to see local fairs and markets. She only gave up after aunt Jane told her it's healthier for me to finally go somewhere without family."  
"Dad will stop talking to uncle Charles" Rose whispered. "It was uncle who managed to get him to agree. Aunt actually just proposed it at some dinner and told me all about it before dad had time to react. It took two more hours for uncle to convince dad that I'm old enough to go on my own.."  
Again they sat in silence for a moment.  
"This is going to be a mess" declared Mina.  
They looked at each other with wide eyes.

***

They sat on Mina’s bed, shoulder to shoulder, hands clasped over a scratchy blanket covering their legs.  
"Do you think, if you asked, dad would let you come to visit us?"  
Rose slowly shook her head.  
"Don't think so. Or, even if he did, aunt Catherine would do something to make it impossible."  
Mina frowned.  
"OK, first things first. We have to make a list of all family members so that I can understand what you're talking about. Who is aunt Catherine and why does she sound like a right nightmare?"

***

"Anne is dad’s cousin?"  
"Yes."  
"Like, actual cousin, parents were siblings?"  
"Yes, dad's mother - I've never met her, she died when aunt Georgiana was born - and aunt Catherine were sisters."  
"Gross. I think that's against the law or something..." Mina scrunched up her nose.  
"I'm sure if aunt Catherine can do anything about it, she will" Rose shrugged. "She gets what she wants, and from what aunt Georgi told me, she wanted dad and aunt Anne to get married like, forever."  
"I'd like to see her try" Mina said quietly. "She can't do this if Mom and dad are still married."  
Rose shrugged.  
"I can definitely imagine her trying to. She's been at it far longer than we've been alive. Aunt Georgi says she started at dad when he was only in high school."  
"It's like, disgusting."  
"You've said it, girl."  
"I wonder what made her so... why would she even want this for her daughter?"  
Rose snorted and whipped out her phone pulled up a picture and handed it over to Mina without a word.  
“Wow” was the only thing her sister managed to say.  
“Yeah. Half of my class is like, in love with him.”  
“He looks like a movie star.”  
“He’s your father, mind you.”  
Mina snorted.  
“I can only say, at least now I know where my looks come from. Most of our side of the family is blonde, only Mom is a bit darker, but no black hair on anyone.”  
“OK, your turn” Rose looked at her expectantly.  
Mina made a quick choice, picking a photo she liked the best.  
“This is Mom. Last Christmas, she…”  
Rose’s eyes teared up.  
“God, she’s lovely” she whispered. “I…”  
“Yep” Mina popped the ‘p’ happily. “And she’s fun. And she loves making stuff. You’ll love her, just wait. We'll think of something.”  
“You’ll love dad, too. He… He would do anything for me. I mean, for us, I suppose. We have to make this happen.”

Between them, a screen showing Elisabeth Bennet hanging ornaments on the Christmas tree slowly darkened.

***

"How many?!" Rose's voice rose in pitch.  
"Four. Not counting the second-degree-whatevers, because grandma has two siblings and they also have kids. Granduncle Eddie has four and grandaunt Phil has three. Plus there is a cousin of our grandpa's, who's like a lot younger than him and is kind of always visiting and trying to ask one of Mom's friends out, and she's always blowing him off. She doesn't really like him, but she says she just can't tell him to get lost because her mother keeps setting her up with some weird guys from her church, so she prefers Bill because she knows what to do to keep him at a distance."  
"So, what, four aunts, plus their cousins?"  
"Yes, uncle Eddie has two daughters and two sons and aunt Phil has two daughters and one son. So in total we have eight aunts and three uncles, well, the ones that are kind of our Mom's generation. Plus husbands, meaning, Mom's brothers-in-law. Also, Tommy, who is Mom's oldest cousin, is getting married next year, so we'll get another aunt. She's nice and she loves crafts, just like Mom."  
Rose wrapped a blanket around herself more tightly.  
"I thought a big family is when you have, like, two siblings" she mumbled slowly.  
"Well, now you know what it means to have an _actual_ big family. And Grandma has the biggest house, so she invites everyone for every holiday possible, and usually everyone comes. So there's me, aunt Jane's five, aunt Kitty's twins and aunt Lydia's Adele, who's kind of our age, and aunt Mary's Jimmy. Jimmy is not our actual cousin, because aunt Mary adopted him, but he's been with her since he was like two or three months old, so he's family anyway."  
Rose nodded mutely.  
"And our cousins are mostly girls, because it's just Jimmy and Jonathan, aunt Jane's youngest, for boys. Grandma is very worried about us all, because she says nobody will be able to afford all these weddings once we're all grown up. Grandpa then says that he hopes we all elope and let our parents keep the money, and usually then there is a row and uncle Charlie has to do something to make them stop."

***

Rose sighed, swiping through Mina's photoalbum on the tablet.  
"I wish I could convince dad to let me visit" she said dejectedly. "But I wouldn't count on it. And if aunt Anne hears about it, she will run to aunt Catherine and she will do anything she can to stop me."  
"Why would she want to? I know you told me she wants Dad to marry aunt Anne, but this doesn't make sense…”  
Rose turned to face her sister, who was busy crocheting a bag from a ball of string for her craft project.  
"Because they both like to make me not do stuff. I only learnt how to swim because the school requires it, even though we have a pool and a pond on the property. But aunt Anne said that she always felt that it is not ladylike to swim, and aunt Catherine agreed. And they said I can't go to the public pool with other children from my school, even when aunt Georgiana went herself."  
"That's stupid. Swimming is useful. Our coach says it can save your life someday."  
"Well, I suppose aunt Catherine would sooner die than be seen as unladylike."  
"Or she would wait for rescue and then complain that they were late."  
Rose snorted and nodded.  
"And then there was this camp. I almost didn't come because aunt Anne imagined that I would be mixing with _inappropriate element_. They nearly got dad to switch my school to the very posh one on the other end of town. I'd spend whole morning every day just getting there. And I know some of these girls from my ballet classes, and I tell you, they are a nasty bunch. I wouldn't want to sit by any of them for the world. Also, it's segregated."  
Mina frowned.  
"What do you mean?"  
"It's a girls school. No guys."  
"Geez. What are they afraid of, that you'd get boy-cooties?"  
“Inappropriate element, again. Apparently school dances are a sin. Or something.”

***

"Maybe you could come to us?" Rose suggested. "Would your... would mother allow you to come?"  
Mina frowned.  
"I don't... I'm not sure. I could maybe convince aunt Jane to ask her to take me when they visit you, but..." she bit her lip.  
"What?"  
"I don't think Mom likes father very much."  
Silence fell for a moment.  
"Why?" Rose finally asked in a small voice.  
"She never mentions him. Even when she once listed all her ex-boyfriends to a friend, she never said anything about him. I know because that friend asked which one of these was my father and Mom said 'none'. So you see, she doesn't even mention him, like, in normal way."  
"Dad never mentioned mother either, but..." Rose thought for a moment. "I think I once heard aunt Catherine rant about her, mostly about someone's ungratefulness and aiming too high for their own good. And dad said 'not one more word about her, aunt' and suddenly she went so silent."  
"And grandma doesn't like him either" Mina said morosely. "Like, when I do something she doesn't like, she says stuff like 'so much like him'. I'm guessing father got on her nerves somehow."  
"I wonder how they managed to stay together long enough to have _us_ " Rose moaned, rubbing her eyes. "Because it seems like nobody from one side has anything good to say about the other one."  
"Except for aunt Jane and uncle Charles, because they still visit both of them."  
"Yeah, but only you get to play with their kids."  
Mina nodded slowly.  
"I think I know why they don't ever take them visiting to you."  
Rose ate another cookie, waiting for Mina to proceed.  
"It's... If they brought them to a dinner and one of the little ones would say something about meeting me with my daddy, I'd know there was something wrong. So they had to choose one house they don't bring kids to."  
"And that was our house..."  
"Because grandma would be furious if they tried coming without her grandbabies. So they had to choose our side as the ones to be visited in full cast."  
Rose groaned.  
"I _want_ to meet my cousins. I _want_ to have more aunts! I just have Anne, who is stupid and always goes tattling to her mother, and aunt Georgiana who is like the sweetest thing ever, but she'd never do anything like aunt Jane, to argue or talk over dad. She's mostly sitting in her room and working on her articles and historical papers."  
"You have aunt Jane, too" Mina pointed out, a little helplessly. "You can talk to her about stuff, I guess. I do."  
"But she lives closer to you, so it's not like I can talk to her very often."  
Mina sighed.  
"I'd like to see your house. And meet aunt Georgiana. She sounds nice."  
"If aunt Jane ever brings you, we could spend time together, I'd show you the gardens and everything. And you know, the best part would be, you could meet _dad_. He's..." she shrugged. "I don't know. Other kids always complain about their dads, but I've never understood why. My - our - dad is just great, and he loves doing stuff with me, like riding horses. Or playing chess. He takes whole days off work, just to go with me somewhere. Last spring he took me to Bronte Parsonage to show me where they lived, when we were reading Jane Eyre at school."  
"I wish you could come to London and meet everyone" Mina sighed. "We have fabulous fun, playing in grandma's garden. And we could go see all the good things in the city. There are all these museums I love, and the shops, and everything. Mom actually promised to take me for brafitting when I'm back from the camp, and if you could come, that would be even more fun."  
"Dad promised me a week hike in the mountains, once I'm back from the camp. That would be more fun with the two of us, too" Rose added. "And then we could..." she broke off. "You know what?"  
"Hm?"  
"I just imagined what fun we could have if we managed to get them to send us to the same school - I'd actually agree to a boarding school, if we got them to send both of us. Would you?"  
Mina nodded slowly and then smiled.  
"Oooh, can you imagine what kind of confusion we could cause? Like, if we cut our hair the same way and tried talking the same?"  
"We anyway talk almost the same - dad makes sure I don't speak too much like a local girl - he said people used to laugh at him when he did it by accident at the Uni."  
"Wow. I can't even start on the stuff we could do..."  
"We can try now" Rose suggested suddenly. "Like I... I could cut my hair, you know. It's not like I love this braid, but aunt Catherine insists on me having long hair. So if I cut it during the camp, she can't do anything about it, right?"  
Mina's eyes widened.  
"That would be so cool" she gasped. "And then we could just mess with everyone's minds for the rest of the camp!"  
"Wow."  
Mina felt her mouth suddenly go dry.  
"Rose?"  
"Hmm?"  
"How would you" she swallowed "How would you feel about going to London after the camp is finished?"  
Rose propped herself on one elbow and looked at her sister.  
"That would be fab, but I don't think dad would agree, like I said."  
"Dad wouldn't have to agree, you see. He wouldn't even notice you are gone."  
"Wh... oh, wow."  
"Yep. I'd take all your stuff..."  
"And I'd go to London and you to Derbyshire..."  
"We could switch and nobody would notice!"  
"You could say that you had to cut your hair because... because someone stuck chewing gum in it!"  
"And you'd just have to play along and stop biting your nails."  
"What!?"  
"I don't bite mine" Mina waggled her fingers towards her sister. "And you do. So you have to stop and let them grow properly."  
"You'd have to start" Rose pointed out.  
"Let's say we claim I grew out of it, OK? Gross."  
Rose frowned.  
"But what about houses? And school and people?"  
Mina smiled.  
"Totally covered. We still have six weeks of camp to make a proper, what Mom calls it, Knowledge Transfer. You teach me about Pemberley, I teach you about our flat, and building and stuff. So. You game?"  
Rose grinned and sat up straighter.  
"Oh yea. The biggest performance of my life! And you know what? We have all these lovely photos on our tablets and phones, right? It's like a real life cheat sheet! We can learn faces and places and things, so you'll show me all the cousins and I can show you everyone on my side and the gardens and my schoolmates. This way once school year starts, we can keep it up for some more time."  
Mina stiffened.  
"School, yes. We have to make sure we know everything... Lord, I have studying during summer!"  
"For higher good" Rose said piously and kept her very serious face until they both collapsed with laughter. "OK, let's start at home. If we don't cover that, we'll be found out immediately."  
"And what if we aren't found out? We can't keep it up infinitely."  
Rose pondered the question for a moment.  
"If we aren't found out by Halloween, then we tell. Once they switch us back, we'll have enough time to correct all tests we flunk and get the grades up. Because, come on, how good is your French?"  
Mina snorted.  
"Probably about as good as your Italian."  
"I suppose so. OK, time to make a plan."


	4. And we plan the same plans

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mina and Rose make a proper Plan and start learning each other's lives. However as they were brought up by two such different parents... There's a lot of ground to cover in only six weeks!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the long wait, but the girls didn't want to behave. However there is some stuff written for the later chapters, so these will go faster (as soon as I make sure the events are in order and my characters aren't suffering from too much OOC).  
> Still, with just this chapter, I managed to double the wordcount. Wow. 25k words more written, and it's still not everything. Next 4 chapters are only written in little pieces, so it will take me a while to post chapter 5 :/  
> In the meanwhile, enjoy. And remember, comments are like cookies for the soul :)

The Plan was a simple piece of paper stuck to the wardrobe door, with each main point spawning several smaller ones. Each was carefully bulleted or numbered in thick, colourful marker and main points were underscored.

"Mom makes plans like this for every family event. She is the organiser and keeps everyone to their deadlines. Only she makes it on the computer, so she can add points when she wants, and she sends e-mails with reminders to everyone."

Rose nodded slowly.

"Dad uses stuff like this to prepare for our trips, or when I'm training before a contest - he plans my exercise and preparation for weeks before. I used to think it was stupid because I had to spend all that time on doing unnecessary stuff long before the competition was supposed to start, but then I started getting much better..."

"Competition?"

She looked at her sister in surprise for a moment.

"Horse riding."

Mina sat on her bed with a groan.

"Lord. Horses."

"What? Don't tell me you're afraid of them!"

Mina cringed silently.

"Can't you, like, _pretend_?" Rose finally asked, irritated just a bit.

"For two months? With big, smelly, snorting and stomping animals?"

"They're not that bad! And Star is the best little mare I've ever seen!"

Mina groaned.

"I just hope there is no contest for me to show in in the fall."

"Yep, you're lucky here. You'll just have to ride her every day, to make sure she doesn't start growing fat."

"Argh."

"You just have to deal with one horse" Rose shrugged. "I'll have to deal with the London underground."

#

The Plan had three main headers

FAMILY

SCHOOL

ORIENTATION

Under Family, girls listed

* names

* faces

* who likes who

And that was quite enough to keep them occupied for the first week.

"Grandma doesn't like mom, or me" Mina explained, scratching her nose and pointing to the faces on the photo she found from Jane's birthday picnic. "Grandpa actually loves Mom the best, because she plays chess with him and reads all the same books. He is a retired engineer and Mom says he was the one who made everyone stop nagging her when she wanted to get a degree in programming. Because grandma said it was not a proper feminine thing to do. So grandma always touts how aunt Jane studied child psychology and that it _is_ the proper thing to do."

Rose nodded, making small notes on the thick notepad.

"And what about the other aunts?"

"This one, here. Mary is the third, she's two years younger than Mom. She is a historian, writes descriptions of old churches and little chapels and stuff like this. Show her a ceiling painted with angels and she can spend a day analysing the colours used, the type of gilding, the size of the brush and even if the painter was standing or maybe lay on his back. It doesn't sound fascinating when I say it, but she can make it like a story of what the painter's life used to be in various times. Really cool stuff, she helped me with some fab school projects."

"Next?"

"Here, Kitty. Catherine, but Mom hates... ah!" Mina's face brightened. "That's why!"

Rose frowned.

"You mean we have _two_ aunts named Catherine?"

"Yep, but only one is terrible. Aunt Kitty is fun. She works at some office, but loves building stuff - like, mechanical things. Her husband - uncle Ted - jokes that one day he will buy an auto repair shop just so that aunt Kitty can get greasy up to her elbows without feeling guilty and having to wash it off before work. She loves to ride this enormous bike - and that's how she met uncle Ted - his bike broke down in the middle of nowhere and she helped him to get it started again."

Rose blinked.

"A bike? Like, a motorbike?"

"Duh. Sure, a motorbike. She helped him fix the engine - clear the flues or whatever it was. He was supposed to go camping with some mates but ended up chasing her for some fifty kilometres, because she dropped her documents when was done with his bike. And she thought he was a crazy biker murderer and that he was trying to catch her. And because she went over the speed limit, the police pulled her over and asked for documents. She didn't have any..."

"Of course."

"And there comes uncle Ted, 'all in shiny leather armour' as she says, and hands them her wallet, saying something like 'You forgot your papers again, love' and she couldn't even hit him because it was in front of a traffic policeman. Once the police ticketed them - both of them - he apologised for frightening her and asked her out to a dinner."

"That's crazy."

"That's what grandma says. She still doesn't trust uncle Ted, but Mom thinks he's great for aunt Kitty. And he promised he would teach me to ride, but aunt Kitty hit him with a newspaper and said that if anyone is teaching her nieces to ride, it will be her."

Rose's eyes widened.

"Aunt Catherine would _have a kitten_ if she saw me on a motorbike."

Mina snorted.

"We'll have to wait three more years anyway."

Rose sighed dreamily but quickly shook herself out of it.

"Ok, so that's aunt Kitty, number four. And five is... Lydia?"

"Aunt Lydia, yes. She's six years younger than Mom and she has Adele. Adele is just a bit younger than us, and we used to play together a lot when aunt Lydia dropped her at Grandma's, but something happened and aunt Lydia doesn't like her playing with me anymore. I _think_ it may be because of our father, because every time she looks at me she says something bad about the way I look, like my hair, or my eye colour. Which, looking at the photo you've shown me, is what we got from father."

"Everyone hates him?" Rose said morosely.

"Except for aunt Jane and uncle Charlie, I'm afraid, yes."

"I can't promise I will be nice to whoever tries trash-talk him."

"Well, I can't promise I won't get into aunt Catherine's face if she says stuff about Mom."

"Deal."

"Deal."

"So, what about aunt Lydia's husband? Boyfriend?"

"None. I've never even seen Adele's dad. I only know that his name starts with 'G', because I once saw a postcard with a lot of loves and kisses and it was sent before Adele was born, so I kind of guessed it must have been him."

Rose chewed a cookie slowly.

"That all sounds very complicated" she said at last. "OK, hit me. Who next?"

"I hope I won't get lost in the gardens" Mina sighed, looking at the photo of Pemberley house. "Because, really, it looks like it needs its own satellite system to navigate there."

"Wouldn't help" Rose shrugged. "Dad asked Google and they de-listed our internal alleys and garden paths. You'd basically see a lot of 'green area'."

"Very promising."

"Well, at least the house is so big you'll see it from anywhere on the grounds."

Mina blinked and rubbed her eyes.

"OK, so. Floorplan test. Doors in the middle of the house. On the right, the great hall, then the staircase. To the back, the library, then the drawing room and the music room. On the left, the master's study - and Dad doesn't use it anymore, due to it being too stuffy, so he keeps most house records there, and then the mistress' study, same. Then there are the servants' stairs."

"Very well. The library mostly contains first editions and other stuff that can barely stay together, so the rule is 'look, don't touch'. The normal, readable stuff is upstairs in my room and in Dad's study. So, what's in the basement?"

"The kitchens and the servants' quarters" Mina answered promptly. "The rooms are not used anymore, as they were terribly inconvenient and way too cold and damp, so all the house and ground employees live in a new building on the grounds. The rooms are now storage space and the kitchen has been vastly updated since the old times, adding electricity and other stuff that the building commission allowed, but the museum guys didn't, and they were very unhappy once it was redone."

"Yep. Out great-grand-father wrote them that he expects to live in this house until he dies and he intends to do this with all possible comforts, including the comfort of his cook, who wishes to have all modern amenities, and not be stuck with a wood stove."

"Good for him. Nice that he cared for the staff's comfort."

"He cared for his dinners and suppers, Dad says" Rose corrected. "He knew perfectly well that unhappy cook makes unhappy meals."

"Still, the outcome counts. He got her a better working space, instead of just demanding stuff to be done properly without upgrading the hardware. I'm sure there were many people who wouldn't even think about how the employees get things done."

"That for sure. Aunt Catherine, for example. She used to complain of drafts in her rooms and berating the students who were hired to clean until Dad pointed out that she can either have her room aired and fresh, or stuffy and draft-free. Because what she called 'drafts' was actually fresh air moving when they were airing the unused rooms next to hers. She got very angry and told him proper servants would have known how to air a room and not make it drafty at the same time."

Mina blinked, slowly.

"Is she for real?"

Rose rolled her eyes.

"Unfortunately, very much so."

"And she called them 'servants', like, to their faces?"

"Yes she did. They weren't happy."

"And what did Dad do?"

"He told her to stop bothering the poor girls and to make a choice - either they clean her room and she stays quiet or they will skip her and aunt Anne's rooms, but the two of them will have to clean after themselves. She was quick to pick the first option."

"Poor students. They would have been happier with the second one, I suppose."

"Sure. There was enough to do in the whole house anyway. But Dad paid them enough to make sure they didn't just quit when she became more annoying, Mrs Reynolds said."

"Mrs Reynolds, the housekeeper?"

"And cook, and aunt Georgiana's babysitter, long time ago."

"At least you won't have to learn all the staff names. It's just me and Mom at the flat and grandma has just one lady who helps with cleaning after parties, a kid next door who mows the grass and a part-time gardener who only works in spring and summer."

"But I will have to learn all the little cousins."

"True. And it may be harder to fool kids than grownups, too."

#

"Schoolmates will be a challenge. I have my form picture here, so we can print it in the computer room and I'll sign them all and mark who is who. However the important one is Annie, here. She is an annoying pest and she will try to get on your nerves. Just avoid her, or she will make your life _hell_."

"Annie, avoid. OK."

"Also, don't try it with any of the guys, please. One, they are all at the grabby stage. Two, I'd rather not be pressed to follow through later."

"No problem, but same to you."

"Sure. I'll be spending all my time adoring the most important man in my life" Mina fluttered her eyelashes and smiled sweetly.

"Dear Lord, stop that" Rose choked on her cookie. "You look like some of my classmates when Dad picks me up from school. Half of my form salivates - and some of the teachers, too. Three tried to get me to set them up on _dates_ with him."

Mina sat for a moment, looking at her sister with round eyes.

"I'm not sure if it's better or worse at my school" she uttered finally. "Mothers from my class basically either hate Mom or look down at her. You know. The only unmarried mother in the whole year."

"Statistically impossible" Rose bit into another cookie. "How many kids?"

"No idea..."

"Because in an average class in normal society there should be at least two kids from partial families. If not orphaned, then parents divorced or otherwise split."

"Well, there are some divorced parents, but at least everyone knows their _both_ parents" Mina shrugged and started playing with the blanket edge. "And I..."

"Well, at least Dad doesn't get _shamed_ for having me alone" Rose licked her fingers to clean them of all crumbs. "But if I had a quid for every time I've heard kids snickering that my mother must have hated me, and that's why she left me..."

The moment Rose's eyes filled with tears, her sister was already hugging the breath out of her.

"I'm sure she loved you. She must have an explanation to all this."

"I'm planning to ask her" Rose mumbled quietly. "Because..."

"We have to get to the bottom of this. She is perfectly lovely, and if you say Dad is a nice guy, too, then something very weird must have happened."

"I wonder what he did to make her leave and take you away."

"Actually, it might have been Dad that had left her" Mina pointed out suddenly. "We don't know where they were living when..."

Rose nodded reluctantly.

"Maybe they were moving? Because it seems my side knows Mom, and your side knows Dad, which means they _must_ have met 'the other side' at least once. If grandma criticises you for being too similar to him, she must have spent enough time to get to know him. And aunt Catherine..."

"Which means that we don't know where they lived, but definitely we know they moved between London and Lambton."

"At least visited the 'other' place for long enough to leave a lasting impression. I wonder when it was, actually. When they started, when - whichever it was that left, left."

"We'll have to make a proper investigation. Like, point one, check our birth certificates. There is always a place of birth written there. At least we'll know where they were living at the time."

Rose chewed on her thumb for a moment.

"I think it was Mom that left Dad, and not the other way round" she said finally. "Because Dad once said he would never imagine living anywhere but in Derbyshire. And we do have a house there and all that stuff. And in London, you two live in a flat, which is, you know. Temporary."

Mina nodded slowly.

"And we can google for Mom's master thesis" she said softly. "Because she didn't to it in London, that much I know. So if she did it in Derbyshire..."

"And it was sometime when we were born..."

"Then we'll know where they lived, for sure."

"I wonder what Dad did to piss off the other half of the family if they lived that far away."

"They had to spend some time in London, definitely. I can't imagine my whole family travelling north to visit" Mina suddenly bit her lip in thought.

"What? You asleep?"

"I... Wait a minute" she shook herself awake. "Aunt Jane's wedding! That's why there are no photos!"

Rose frowned, but Mina explained immediately, raking her hair with all fingers, as enlightenment hit her suddenly.

"They were married like a year before we were born. There are no photos of their wedding, nowhere in the house. Even at grandma's. Only two of just their faces. But usually people have a ton of photos, even special albums, and they make videos, and..."

"So our parents were together at that wedding."

"I'd say so. Even better, if Dad is uncle Charles' best friend, and Mom and aunt Jane are the closest sisters..."

"They were the bridesmaid and the best man" Mina concluded. "And that's why all the shots from the church and from the reception would include them."

"So the whole family is hiding the photos from you."

"Maybe that was the time when he managed to annoy them that much? Because if they were organising the wedding and he was the best man, he would have been there all the time to help and to keep uncle Charles calm and so on."

"And with everyone already nervous about the wedding..."

"I'd say it wouldn't take long for grandma to get mad at anyone who opposed her, and from what you're saying, Dad isn't quite like uncle Charles when it comes to talking to people."

"The only person he allows to boss him is Aunt Catherine, actually."

"He must have done something that made grandma hate him - and us, now."

They stretched on Mina's bed, side by side, pulling a blanket over their legs.

"What a mess" Rose sighed.

"I wonder what they will do when they have to meet to exchange us."

"I guess kissing and making up won't be on agenda."

Mina licked her lips and worried the lower one with her teeth for a moment.

"Maybe we could make them make up."

"Dad is like the most stubborn guy I've met. I mean, whenever he argues with uncle Richard, he always wins. Always."

"Maybe he's always right?"

"That's what I told uncle Richard and he looked at me funny and said he knows about one effing mistake my Dad made and it's enough for uncle to think about Dad as an idiot. It wasn't 'effing' of course, but Dad expects me not to use the 'f' word too often."

"Not that I'm a betting girl, but I _would_ bet that it has something to do with Mom."

#

"I just hope we can get them to let us meet later on."

"We'll have our phones, you know."

"That won't be enough."

"If they don't let us meet, phones are better than nothing."

"We have a class trip to London planned in November."

Mina's eyes widened.

"Let me know when - I'll see if I could sneak out, at least for the afternoon!"

"We could freak out my classmates."

"We could freak out _anyone_. Especially if you let me know what you'd be wearing. We could pick similar outfits and mess with everyone out there."

"And since you'll be already after spending two months with them, you will know everyone, so it will be even better!"

#

_She pinned the pattern to the big corkboard, aligning the partial printouts with each other and stepped away to see the whole. She chose two coloursets - one in floral yellows and another in geometric greens. She had enough pieces for both items, but still missed a few darker accents in the green set. Ordering them online was much less fun than buying in an actual fabric store, but there wasn't enough time. If she was to finish before Mina came home at the end of August, she had to hurry._

_The oven beeped._

_It was three o'clock in the morning and Elizabeth felt more alive than during the day. London was stifling and stinky that summer and she vastly preferred sleeping during the day and working during the night._

_Sometimes the modern construction didn't sound all that attractive and she felt a wave of nostalgia for the good, proper country mansion with two-foot-thick walls, dim rooms and cool stone floors. It would have been much more comfortable to spend summer in..._

_She stomped on the thought with vigour._

#

ORIENTATION

Mina underlined it a few times in thick marker.

"You will have to learn the basics of big city navigation. I suppose Dad never took you to London - and I kind of can guess why - but it means you'll have to memorise the underground lines now, at least the ones that are most important to us - from our place to the school, from school to the museums, to aunt Jane's and to grandma. At least to grandma it's a bus, not underground. Let's start with Oyster card..."

Rose nodded, her eyes growing with every explanation of the names, colours and variations of the underground lines that Mina pulled up on her tablet.

"I will need some help with this" she said morosely. "I had no idea this would be that complicated. I've heard jokes about that stuff, but... how can one line be still called one line when it goes to six different places?"

Mina huffed and closed her eyes.

"The main part of the line stays the same, it's just that it forks at the ends. You have to take the Northern and pay attention..."

#

"There is a bus that goes from school, all across the town and out to the villages and bigger houses. You have to get off it by the church in Kympton and then walk ten minutes to the house. The morning will be easier, as Dad always takes me to school on his way to the office, but in the afternoon you have to manage yourself unless someone is in town and can pick you up. That would be either Dad on Fridays, when he tries to finish early, or Mrs Reynolds when she goes shopping - but then you'll be expected to spend time with her picking groceries, or aunt Georgi if she picks up the post, and she will tell you in the morning."

"Fine. And how will I know the right church?" Mina rubbed the bridge of her nose. "At least in London, all the stops are being read aloud, and you won't have to guess."

"It's big, red and half of the bus will be leaving at that point. I will mark the place on my Google Maps so you can check it on the bus and you will know when to be ready to go. From the church, it's just a straight road up to the house, through the grounds - not the front entrance, because that is a two-mile drive, but from the side. You can still enter by the main door, obviously, but the better way is to go by the kitchen entrance" she pointed to the side of the house schematic "and leave all the outside stuff in the cloakroom. If it gets rainy, everyone goes through there, except for aunt Catherine, who insists on always using the main door and being waited on by someone from the staff."

"She definitely _is_ annoying."

"Tell me about it. You will just have to survive two months, I've had my whole life with her."

Mina pressed her sister's shoulder briefly.

"Wait till you meet grandma. Then we can talk."

#

"The school has an old gym, a new gym, a stadium and a few additional courts - tennis, volleyball, whatever. Normally P.E. starts in the gym and then we are divided into groups to do various stuff, or we run laps around the whole area. For swimming, we have separate outings, once every two weeks, and we go by the bus to the municipal pool. There will be a schedule given at the beginning, so you just have to remember to pack the swimsuit, towel and flipflops."

"Ok, and for gym?"

"Just shorts and a t-shirt, there should be a bunch in my wardrobe. School logo on the front and everything. Standard uniform issue. Lockers suck, because the door doesn't close properly, but there is always one girl who guards them, so she will make sure everyone can change safely. Each week someone else, of course. Anyway, it's not like the guys will run in, because Coach Warbert would have their heads for it, but they 'can't help if the door is open', you know."

"Sometimes an all-girl school sounds a little more attractive."

They both laughed into their soup.

The quiet, out-of-the-way table that was appointed as theirs was actually a blessing. They could safely exchange even more points of their everyday life than they would normally be able to put in their rather busy schedule.

"Ah, food! We didn't discuss that yet. Mrs Reynolds cooks, and the general idea is that what she cooks, we eat. Except for aunt Anne, who complains about everything that contains too much saturated fat or whatever the current fad is and then anyway eats cookies for the whole day and is always very surprised she can't eat supper later. You can skip some disgusting stuff, like Brussel sprouts, if you eat enough of everything else - so pick another vegetable and say you just want a lot of _that_ , and Dad won't mind. There is always something to choose from. And there is always something to eat left in the kitchen, so if you're late for whatever reason, like the bus going slower, or a school outing, you can take whatever is in the fridge and microwave it. And there is always something sweet unless Dad gets to it first."

"Anything else? I mean, I saw you've like never touched anything in the kitchen, so I'm guessing you can't do much..."

Rose rolled her eyes.

"I'm pretty much abysmal. Dad's skills are up to frying an egg or making some toast, but not much more. Aunt Georgi can cook, actually, because she used to be a girl scout. But she always says it's a skill she'd much rather not be forced to use on daily basis, and she doesn't feel proficient enough to make others eat whatever she makes."

"OOkk" Mina rubbed her face. "That has to change. Mom actually started teaching me stuff last year, but we've her home ed for two years now, so she expects me to be able to feed myself in a reasonable way. Can you make sandwiches without cutting yourself bloody?"

"I suppose so."

"Heat up milk for cocoa?"

"No problem."

"Remember to take it out before it escapes the cup?"

"I think I can manage."

"Fry scrambled eggs?"

Rose grimaced.

"Not happy with having to crack them open. I don't like the way raw eggs look inside."

"Squeamish?"

"It's just gross."

"OK, moving on. Chopping onions? Peeling carrots? Cooking pasta?"

"Yes, yes if there is a proper peeler, no."

"As long as it's warm you can always say you didn't want a cooked supper or something. And eat yoghurt or sandwiches. But you'll have to catch up by mid-October, when it goes colder."

"I'll try, but I really don't like using a gas stove. I'm always afraid there will be something stuck in the pipes and we'll blow up at the smallest provocation. The ones _we_ used during home ed looked like they had been there when our grandma went to that school."

"Geez, living in the countryside must have affected your brain. It's the twenty-first century and there are _options_. We don't have an actual gas stove at the house, it's fully electric. I've cooked my first soup on it. No matches, no open flame, no risks."

"I'll try to convince Dad to maybe switch one of the stoves in the kitchen to electric then" Rose sighed. "It would be good to have a chance to, maybe, do stuff for myself."

"And it's much more ecological" Mina added. "OK, next. Washing machine!"

#

"Mucking out the stall is normally done by one of the grooms, but if you manage to annoy Dad enough, you will get stable chores. First, you have to take out all the dirty stuff..."

#

"Water the herbs, once a day, in the early morning. They droop immediately if you forget."

#

"My bike is in the shed, next to the stable. You can use it on the property, but not on the public road, Dad gets really antsy if I do that."

#

"We don't have an electric dryer, so all the clothes have to be put either on the balcony, on the lines, or inside, on the fold-out dryer."

"And then taken down, folded..."

"Yep. My stuff to my room, Mom's stuff on her bed, linens to the hall cupboard and kitchen stuff to the big drawer under the oven."

#

"First weekend after school starts, Dad will take me - you - for a trip. No idea what that will be, it's always a surprise. Might be hiking, might be an astronomical observatory, might be a road trip to some weird monument. Last year we went to Devon to see the traditional dairies and old workshops in the area. Just because there was a mention of them in my history textbook and Dad decided I should see some of that stuff with my own eyes."

#

"Mom does most of the shopping, but if she forgets something, or if she has to work through the whole afternoon, she will give you money. The Sainsbury is just around the corner, on the left from the house. It has everything you'd need. We don't have any specific preferred brand, except for bread, tea and Mom's favourite crackers, but these she buys at M&S. Bread is this one" Mina tapped on her tablet "and tea is either M&S - and that one Mom will buy herself - or Twinings. Earl Grey or English Breakfast. Sometimes she drinks green, but that one she buys in a tea shop somewhere near Camden Town."

#

"The bathroom is your own, and you should clean it. It's theoretically shared with the room on the other side, but nobody uses it. So you have your own. I think long ago it used to be a dressing room, or something. There is a mop and there should be some wipes there, you just need to make sure all is dry when you're done. Tiling is OK, but Dad says the walls can't cope with that much moisture and if we don't take care, the house will collapse on our heads one day."

#

"And for my birthday, I always bake cookies for my whole homeroom class. With Mom, so don't worry, she will help you. Tell her you want to try something completely new and she won't expect you to do it perfectly at first attempt. Pick something that can be prepared in the food processor - chocolate chip cookies should do. I was picking them for the next time. You just put stuff in the bowl in the correct order and make sure it's blended well. Ask Mom to help you chop the chocolate or buy the ready-made chocolate chips."

#

"My bigger headphones are in the drawer of my desk, next to the computer. Earbuds I'll give you when we pack so that we don't lose them."

"My charger and the whole set of cables are in the box below my table, next to the art supplies crate. There is a duplicate cable for everything, from my old phone to the mp3 player."

#

"Password to my school account, to my e-mail and PINs for my phone and ATM card."

"You have _an ATM card_?"

"You have a facebook account."

" _An ATM card?!_ "

"Shh. Dad said I should have one, just in case I get stuck somewhere and don't have money to get back. I can only withdraw fifty pounds a week, and it will be flagged as an emergency and Dad will get a notification where I was."

"So if something weird happens, I could actually alert him by withdrawing the money?"

"Kind of, I suppose."

"OK, so PIN for my phone, the unblock shape is like this. Password for the school account, my Gmail and my facebook. Don't accept _any_ new friends. I added everyone I cared for and really don't want to get spammed with random crap. The PIN to the main door is here, but if you forget, the doorman will let you in, but you'll have to wait for him a bit. Tablet has the same unblock shape as the phone. Also, don't log any game in to Facebook. I don't care about sharing results, and Mom would have my head - or yours - if I let some crappy company get my private data."

#

"Locker combinations change every year, so you will get yours on the first day."

"Same for you."

"At least that will be new for everyone."

#

"The ballet lessons" Mina asked uncertainly. "Do you still take them?"

Rose blinked.

"No, no. Thankfully, no. I asked Dad to stop it two years ago. It was too much, too late in the afternoon and the girls were so catty I frankly hated going there. The exercise itself was fine and if I could get individual lessons, or in some other group, I'd be OK. But there is no other club in Lambton, so..." she shrugged. "You?"

"No, we used to do dance classes, but the teacher got into trouble with some mothers when she allowed girls to dance in pairs to practice waltz. Mom said she just can't understand people sometimes and had uncle Charles give me dancing lessons for a few months."

"I can waltz, but only slowly" Rose admitted. "But I also learned rumba and samba last year, Dad signed me up for summer lessons."

"I can do both slow and Viennese" Mina bit into a cookie. "And they taught us Polonaise and Ländler."

"And _what_? I know what Polonaise is, but Ländler?"

"Austrian folk dance. Ever seen Sounds of Music?"

Rose sat back for a moment.

"Aaah! That's what Maria is dancing with the Captain!"

"Yep. So we did this. No modern dances, though."

"As long as there is no school dance, you'll be fine."

"Don't even start."

#

"Volleyball."

"Basketball."

"Crap."

"' _A lot can change during the summer, Miss. I'd like to try volleyball this year._ '"

"I hope it works."

"Well, and I hope we will manage to switch stuff back in November, once we are back in our own schools. I don't relish the idea of being stuck in volleyball club for the rest of the year."

#

"There are a lot of similarities between Italian and French, that saves us. Otherwise, we fail all tests and we excel at homework assignments. It shouldn't be that hard to undo the damage in November."

"The grammar references are all on the shelf above my desk, you will see them. Verb conjugation is in the thin red one, Bescherelle. If your Italian is on the same level as my French, you should be able to pick the idea up."

"Mine are all on the bookshelf, green cover. Full grammar reference, with conjugation, articles and stuff. And the dictionaries."

#

"Mom loves Terry Pratchett."

"Dad says fantasy is an escape from real world. But he buys me Discworld, too."

"Tolkien?"

"Hardy?"

"Gaiman?"

"Yes. Rowling?"

"Yes, but rolling her eyes."

"Same."

"Andrew Norton?"

"Meh. McCaffrey?"

"Cool. Montgomery?"

"Yep. Emily or Anne?"

"Pat."

"Emily."

"Dumas?"

"Too thick. But OK."

"Verne?"

"Eighty Days."

"Journey to the Centre of Earth."

"Thackeray?"

"Definitely. Lindgren?"

"Who?"

"Astrid Lindgren. 'Bullerby Children', you know?"

"Never heard of them."

"You have some catching up to do."

"Edith Nesbit?"

"Yep."

"'Borrowers'?"

"Not so much. 'Mary Poppins'?"

"Very much. Twain?"

"Not really. Burnett?"

"'Little Princess' or 'Secret Garden'?"

"'Little Princess', Mary annoys me too much."

"If we manage to make them let us meet, we can try to make a trip to Yorkshire. I went with Dad last year and it was just... perfect."

Mina sighed.

"Let's hope we can get this to work during this year. I really don't want to..."

"I know."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sooo... let me know what you think :)
> 
> Please remember that this is built on a mix of Parent Trap and the original book, so the outcome will be twisted (plus P&P personal dynamics added...) and slightly different than what you may know from the movies.
> 
> I just checked. Eleven subscriptions! That warms my little heart :) It's nice to know someone is waiting for the next part.
> 
> If you see something non-British here (my corpo-English is affecting my writing language), please let me know and I will correct it ASAP. I hate knowing my text looks weird, but right now I have no beta ;(


	5. And then we run so fast

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> End of camp is near and so ladies must focus.  
> Also, small peek into what the older generation is doing, when kids are away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, Ch5 is here. Not beta checked, because apparently my dear husband isn't up to the challenge. But I did re-read it and made minor corrections. If you find any mistake like a word badly spelled (but still making an actual word...) or a lost verb, please DO let me know. I try my best, but no spellchecker is perfect.  
> Also, this is not brit-picked, so if some americanism OR, even worse, corpoenglish managed to sneak through, pleeeeease tell me.

"Holding out until Halloween means that we'll be spending our birthday in the wrong houses" Mina pointed out.

"What? What do you mean?"

"I mean that October twelfth is earlier than November first."

"October eleventh" Rose corrected her mechanically.

"Twelfth."

"Eleventh."

Mina frowned.

"We were not born on the same day?"

They sat for a moment in stunned silence.

"That means she had to wait, like, _hours_ until you were born."

"And now I'm feeling guilty, you know. Considering all they told us during the Sex Ed last year... I wonder how long it took to... Eurgh" Mina raked her hair with both hands.

"Not your fault. But it still must have sucked for her."

"Maybe that's why mother always complains about me being up before her in the morning. She once said I was rather late on one occasion, so apparently I'm making up for it by being early ever since. Which made no sense then, but if you say we've been born one day apart..."

They both cringed a bit. Rose cast around for another topic, rather frantically.

"So, what does Mom do for your birthday?"

Mina shrugged.

"We can't really invite anyone over, because the flat is way too small. Twice I had a birthday party at grandma's, but that just felt like any normal family dinner without anyone from outside, so only family. So we kind of gave up. So we normally bake a huge box of cookies for me to take to school and maybe go to the cinema in the evening. And usually we go somewhere during the next weekend, like a museum or a climbing wall or a whole day at a pool. Last year we went to a trampoline park. It was _glorious_. And aunt Jane took me out shopping, because Mom got called in to some total failure of a server farm due to a DDoS and she was stuck at the keyboard for whole weekend, bringing them safely online."

"That sounds... complicated" Rose frowned. "What does it mean?"

"Basically, someone managed to overload a bunch of servers somewhere and it made some bigger news services stop working. Mom spent three days checking them for traces of hacking."

"At least Dad doesn't have emergencies like this" Rose shuddered. "How do you do this? I mean, do you stay alone a lot?"

Mina blinked.

"No, never. Mom is always home. She sits in her bedroom, fires up three monitors and then works through the night. She only goes to the companies she's working with like once a week, maybe twice. And not for the whole day. And f... Dad? What does he do?"

"A lot of different stuff" Rose worried the end of her braid. "He manages Pemberley, but also has an assistant who deals with most of small, everyday stuff. Dad interviews the people he hires to work on the grounds and in the house - students who need money, mostly. He always says he likes to give them a chance to earn an honest amount of cash during summer, so they don't have to pick up that many jobs when they have classes. He usually hires from Lambton and neighbouring villages, because he says the more people with a degree in an area, the better. He deals with real estate around our place - sells and buys little plots of land, changing the property borders a bit every year. He owns a company that builds houses for people - in places where it's hard to plan a new building. They check the area, put together some ideas on how the house should be positioned to make the best of the ground - like if there is a slope, to use the lower levels for garage and so on. And then they contract the required working teams and arrange all the permits, road planning and whatever. There are rich people out there who want 'a little house, like a castle, over this stream' and so Dad helps them set it up."

"Cool" Mina nodded. "But is he an architect, or, I don't know, construction engineer...?"

"No, not like this. He says he doesn't have to, he knows well enough how they do their work, but he is the business manager. Like, makes calculations and says if something will pay off to install. Oh, and he runs a charity, too. I sometimes go to the events he throws for it. Aunt Catherine hates them, so I decided I'm going to try what they are like, and it's sometimes really nice - like auctions of actual handmade stuff that some important people made. One of the MPs from the area crocheted a bunch of pillows once and Dad bought two, because he saw I loved them. And everyone tries to bid as high as possible, even on stupid stuff like postcards, because they know Dad uses the auctions to check what people really are. He told me so, it's not like I guessed myself. He said the way they bid and they items they buy and the... the atmosphere they create, it tells him if they are bidding because they like the thing, because they want to support the charity, or because they want to draw his interest. He tries to avoid the last bunch, unless they prove they are really honest in their business."

Mina sighed.

"Mom makes a lot of really pretty things" she said softly. "I guess she isn't important enough for them to be added to an auction like this, though. But she can make most anything. Like, sewing, knitting, crochet... she just hates embroidery, unless it's cross-stitch. Three years ago she even took a class in cake decorating, just to check what it is about."

"Wow" Rose's voice was full of envy. "The most Dad can make is the stuff we had to build for a workshop class. He helped me to make a bird feeder and a bee house. If it's wooden and can be cut, he's happy to help with it. He even installed a jigsaw in the shed, because once he had an idea to make a dollhouse for me, but it took him so long to learn to use it that I grew out of dolls. But he taught _me_ and that bird feeder we made was really fancy."

"I wish I had a workshop. Or, well, that Mom had a workshop. She has to keep everything on the living room table and in boxes everywhere. She can't really work on anything bigger, unless it's crochet, because we don't have space for it. She takes some things to special shops to be finished - like quilts, to that place that has quilting machines."

"I..." Rose shrugged and played with the end of her braid again, winding it between her fingers. "I think I should learn to sew. I mean, it sounds like a reasonable thing to do. Like something that is useful for everyone."

"It is! I mean, I can only sew in a straight line, but that's enough to fix up a pair of trousers, or sew a pillowcase. That's how I got my bedsheets - Mom let me experiment on some Disney fabric she found on a sale online. So don't be too surprised, but I have Merida-patterned duvet cover."

"You made your own _duvet cover_? How?!"

Mina shrugged.

"Mom helped me with the cutting, and then it's mostly sewing straight. Not a lot to do. The biggest hassle were the buttons."

"I _really_ have to learn to do _that_. There was a time that I would have gladly sold a hand for a Disney-patterned whatever. Not so much these days" she immediately corrected. "But, you know. A year ago or so."

"A year ago I wanted a pink Ariel dress. Mom laughed for, like, twenty minutes when I told her. Then we went through comprehensive review of all Disney princesses and I ended up choosing to dress as the only one who matches our colouring - much better than Ariel."

Rose frowned.

"You discussed the merits of various Disney princesses with _mother_?"

"Of course. She says they are a valid and vital element of modern girl's upbringing, and so should be considered carefully and analysed in order to derive valuable lessons from both the successful and less lucky ones."

Mina delivered the whole sentence with perfectly straight face, trying to contain her giggling at Rose's outraged expression.

"A _what_ element?! Derive _lessons_?!" Mina's snort made Rose splutter even more. "Are you _five_?!"

"No, actually, I'm almost fourteen, thank you very much" Mina smothered her laughter. "But Mom says that because all kids watch Disney, the least she can do is to review the tropes in the movies with me and make me see the failures of models they present. Like Ariel, who sacrificed her voice to catch a man."

"OoOkkk..." Rose inhaled heavily. "What am I getting myself into?"

"Into meeting your mother, dear sis. She is a second of five girls, has an engineering degree, works as a programmer and system administrator and I assure you, you've never met a more forward-thinking and decided feminist in your _life_."

"But she watches Disney movies. And analyses princesses."

"Oh, yes. You should hear her arguing with aunt Kitty about pros and cons of Rapunzel and Merida as the strongest female lead in recent years. I mean, until Moana appeared and completely changed the whole hierarchy."

Rose flopped on her back on the picnic blanket they had covered the grass with and groaned.

"So, well. You'd better be prepared to defend your - _my_ \- favourite, you know. Accidentally, the only one I could reliably dress as at the time" Mina poked her ribs.

"Which is...?" Rose's voice was weak at that point.

"Obviously, Rapunzel. After-haircut Rapunzel."

"So you like _bad boys_ , sister? Is there an Eugene waiting somewhere, ready to surprise me when I arrive to London?"

Mina giggled.

"No, no. No Eugene - and no Flynn, or Philip, or Eric, or whatever else they were called. No. I can promise you more little cousins than Merida has brothers, but no Prince Charming. And" she smiled widely. "Now that we found each other, you can be Elsa to my Anna!"

"Wait, what? Anna has way more fun!"

"Phh. Elsa is older. You are older. By default, _I_ am Anna."

"No way _you_ are Anna! I'm not getting stuck with some oldest-child duties!"

Mina grimaced.

"Actually, you are. And I mean, you are the oldest, of all of us. Because on the Bennet side, I'm the oldest... well. You know. And if you are the older twin... You are the prized first grandchild. Destined for great things - depending on who says it, either to be the first British woman to walk on the Moon - the next Helen Sharman, at least - or the embodiment of domestic perfection that our mother fails to be. Me too, so grandma will focus on you, once she knows there is two of me. Of us."

Rose shivered all over.

"Our grandparents are crazy."

"Oh, yes. You have no idea."

"Grandpa really wants you to...?"

"He says the pinnacle of an engineering career is discovering new places in which to apply knowledge already acquired. No idea what he means, really, but he said again and again that the least I could do is to try to learn enough to be accepted to the space program, because he is _slightly_ disappointed with Mom not having advanced in the academia. Or in space exploration" she rolled her eyes at her sister.

"So he wants you to fill in for her? Why didn't _he_ do anything in that area?" Rose rolled to her stomach and looked up at Mina, who stretched and winced.

"No idea, really. He always said Mom was destined for greatness and he hopes I will, you know. Step into her shoes. Bah. I don't wanna go into space. I'm happy with this island here. I'm not very fond of planes, even. Trains are very fine, thank you. And Mom _hates_ flying."

"I am getting a bit anxious about that switch" Rose bit her lip. "I mean... It is a bit, well. Weird. Are you sure we will manage to fool all of them effectively?"

Mina sniffed.

"I will do my _best_ to keep them from catching me on anything. I really hope we manage to keep it up until Halloween. We could make a big reveal out of it, you know. Like, dress up in our normal clothes..."

"And when they ask you, who are you actually dressed as, you say 'Rose'!"

"As long as they don't cart me off to Bedlam, it should work quite fine."

"Grandma will probably think I'm mad - you're mad - when I do the same."

They sat up, looking at each other with wide eyes and even wider smiles.

"I wish we had an instant camera, to catch their faces when we tell them."

 

#

 

_He looked at the list of limitations he had to adhere to when renovating anything in the house and groaned. He really didn't want to break any more rules, and with the house registered as a proper national monument the amount of changes he was actually allowed to make was minuscule. He would have probably been better off starting a new construction somewhere on the grounds and keeping the main house as it was, using a few rooms for official occasions and record-keeping._

_He opened his contact list and searched for an appropriate person to address the problem. If he planned this correctly, first workers could be on site in January or February, making it quite possible to have the whole thing finished by the next school year. And it would give them the chance to decorate and air the house in warmer months, instead of being stuck inside, inhaling paint fumes._

_He checked Rose's room again. No, no way she was going to spend any more time than necessary in this gloom and darkness. This year he would deal with it by exchanging the furniture and window curtains, to make it all a bit lighter. He would store all the current furnishings anyway - could be used to embellish some of the public rooms downstairs, unless Rose wanted to keep anything specific._

_He would make an appointment with a landscape architect and a designer and start picking the place for the new house. Maybe he'd even manage to put some work in this year budget, if he economised. If they could break the ground in the fall, the whole plan could be done so much faster._

 

#

 

Rose sat nervously fiddling with the hem of her t-shirt as Mina wielded the big scissors they'd lifted from the craft room.

"Last moment to say 'no'" she warned. "Once I cut, they stay cut."

"Cut" Rose nodded. "First the braid, whole, then cut it up to look like yours. I hope we'll manage to get it to look similar enough."

With a swift crunch, the braid fell down and Rose caught it quickly, wrapping it up in a handkerchief. She sat motionless as Mina made quick work of cutting the rest of her hair even shorter, to match her own close cropped head.

"Aunt Catherine will scream when she sees me."

"Well, it will be me, actually. Unless she keeps screaming until November, but then it won't be our problem anymore, because someone will get her committed."

"Let's hope she does. I'd say a few weeks of being consistently screamed at are not a big price to pay for getting rid of her for the rest of our lives."

"If we can get her out of the way, and, well, aunt Anne too, then at least you'll have a chance to do things they always forbid you to. I mean, come on. Would Dad take away aunt Jane's pliers, if aunt Anne hadn't intervened?"

"No, don't think so. We even used them in the shed at some point, to pull nails when I hammered them wrong."

Mina's hand dropped to her side and she looked at her sister accusingly.

"So you _know_ how to use a hammer, and still you looked at me like I was weird for hitting these nails correctly!"

"I... Well, I did it in a _workshop_. Not fixing up a whole _house_. Or a cabin. Or whatever. It was a bird feeder!"

"The same principle, sis. It's still a hammer, some nails and a bit of wood. Really. I felt like I was some McGyver from the looks you were giving me."

"Because you are so... so self-reliant. I mean, if I got a splinter, Mrs Reynolds would take it out for me. Or Dad. And you, you have these... tweezers. Specially for that. And other things like this. I feel like I'm the younger one, sometimes, you know" she sniffed. "I'm sure Mom will find me out in minutes."

Mina sat on the table and looked down on Rose, biting her lip.

"It's because it's only Mom and me" she said finally. "I had to learn that stuff. Like, taking public transport on my own. Adele still rides everywhere with grandma, when aunt Lydia can't take her, because they live in the same house. And I can cook, because Mom started showing me how to do stuff after that one time that she had flu and couldn't cook, so we lived on pizza and Chinese takeout for three days."

Rose nodded slowly.

"I help Dad with cooking when we're hiking" she said, hesitantly. "But it's usually me chopping stuff up, or bringing in more wood for the fire, or stirring whatever it is in the pot."

"So you're fine cooking stuff over _open fire_ on a hike, but not with cooking on gas?"

"Wood doesn't blow up" Rose pointed out. "It's not the fire I don't like, it's the idea of the old installations, like the one at school."

Mina sighed.

"We have _a lot_ of stuff to cover. And only two more weeks left. I really hope we can keep this up."

"I hope I don't get lost on the Tube."

"I hope wolves don't eat me in the woods."

"I hope our little cousins won't find me out."

"I hope aunt Catherine won't find _me_ out."

They breathed deeply in synchronisation.

"Enough" Rose said finally. "Let's make sure we don't trip on the basic stuff, and we can deal with everything else. We _are_ twins, after all. Unless I suddenly start speaking with the Derbyshire accent, we should be able to survive until November."

"Try not to. Mom always corrects me if I use any of the London slang, so..."

"Let's not give them too much material."

 

#

 

The kayak in the middle of the pond was isolated enough. They conferred quietly, making sure there were no interested gossipy faces looking at them.

"So... do you think we could get them, like, back together?"

Mina sighed.

"Mom is always saying that she doesn't need a man in her life to feel complete. And sometimes she adds that she has had enough of male interference with her work and career, thank you. Grandma is then always spluttering that there is nothing like a proper man to fill in the hole in her life, and then aunt Lydia is making noises about her also needing a proper man and Mom..." she grimaced. "Mom usually goes a bit white then. I hadn't noticed first, but then aunt Jane asked her once if she was feeling well, and uncle Ted said that she was so pale he could probably count all freckles on her face. And then I saw it again, and again. Every time someone raises the topic, she looks ready to be sick. Worse than last time on the plane, and actually _was_ sick then."

"God. That sounds... bad. I just hope it..."

"I really hope it's not Dad she's thinking about."

"That would have been... no. No way."

"If it was, she would have told aunt Jane."

"And then uncle Charles would have stopped coming to see us."

"Or they would have done something to get you out."

"Instead, they just manipulated us into coming here."

"That's... a relief."

They sat in slightly sickened silence for a moment, prodding the water with one oar or the other to keep the kayak in place.

Rose rubbed her nose and sighed.

"Dad doesn't really, like, _need_ someone more - he always says he has aunt Georgiana, because she will never move away, she loved Pemberley too much. And every time aunt Catherine tries to press him to declare he'd marry aunt Anne and says that the house 'needs a woman's hand' he says that the house needs a bloody museum curator, not a woman's hand. That was a direct quote, mind you."

"Pemberley is _that_ old?"

"Pretty old. Some Middle Ages D'Arcy apparently staked the claim to the land and built a hold there. Dad says the hold is a myth, because it is a lousy place for a stronghold, but every year we have a bunch of history students running across the estate, looking for ruins and sometimes finding a coin or two. Two years ago Dad actually paid them for some work they did in the meanwhile, because it turned out their research grant was cancelled and they were left without money. So he said if they are history students, they can order the house accounts from like, hundred years ago. We have like rooms and rooms of household records, staff lists and so on. They took over the music room and sorted it all by years, divided by categories, added little notes as to what links to what. And when they were done, they put the records all in order in the old housekeeper room and old Master's study and the account books in the old servants quarters, because they made so many notes that they couldn't make it fit in the old place. But Dad was happy, because they helped him to track down some ancestors' names that hadn't been recorded in the family Bible."

"I wonder they still allow you to live in there" Mina picked up a bit of grass from the surface of the water. "They probably should have covered it all with glass and not allow you to play, run around or even breathe in there."

Rose shrugged.

"Dad has it documented somewhere, what we are allowed to do and what not. But I like it there. The only lousy part is it being so far away from _everything_. Even cinema is like half of an hour drive, because it's on the other side of Lambton. And it's always like three weeks late with everything."

"Sucks. At least there are no big movies coming in the next two months."

"And... I know! I will ask Dad to take me to London to see the Star Wars! This way I'll be there for Christmas!"

Mina smiled widely.

"That is something we could definitely do together. Maybe we could make it to the premiere even!"

 

#

 

_"I'm sorry we couldn't drop by, but Jane wanted to be in London earlier. The kids were a bit cranky, too, so, basically, the only person social enough would have been me."_

_"That's fine, I understand it perfectly" he stretched on the windowsill, trying to find a warmer patch. "Anything in particular happening? It's the middle of summer, so Jane doesn't have any lessons to prepare for, I thought."_

_The silence on the other end of the line was a hint by itself._

_"What happened?" he said softly, head drooping slightly._

_"Jane promised she will be at the court today, there is a case... well, it's not very easy. Some higher-up idiot thought paying a female programmer the same money as men..."_

_He rubbed his temple._

_"Is it...? I mean, do you... do you need anything? Can I help?"_

_"No, it's rather clear-cut. A very nice lawyer decided to pick it up, and she's as ferocious as they come. Jane only promised to be there to hold her hand. You know. They do it all the time, both of them. Last time Jane got stuck at the uni because of the fire drill and I was in Vienna, all the kids were picked up on time and in the car by the time the drill was over. And you know what she thinks of driving in London."_

_He sighed._

_"Charles, I... thank you."_

_"No problem."_

_"And how is...?"_

_"Perfectly well, the last I saw her."_

_"Thank you."_

_"Anytime, Will. Now, tell me about that project of yours, it sounds challenging. Will you need anything special?"_

_"I planned using only locally-sourced materials, but obviously, can't have everything from Derbyshire. If you could give me some contacts to that lovely lady from Scotland who made the rugs Jane loved so much, I'd be grateful."_

_"William, I meant something more substantial. At least tell me you'd be using good quality roof cover, and not... wooden shingles, or something equally rustic."_

_"I was considering thatched roof, actually" he tried to sound thoughtful "but now that you mention shingles, I could try for something more modern. I mean, I wouldn't go so far as to pick slate shingles, but wooden..." Charles snorted. "To be honest, I'd be happy to have your input on a full-roof solar panel installation, considering the weather in the area. Does it make sense, from the economic point of view?"_

_He heard Charles putting down the tea mug._

_"Well, that depends on the placement, solar exposure and what kind of construction you will have to support them..."_

_"If I put you in touch with the main architect, could you put together a proposal, if we assume that the main goal is to have the house both insulated and as self-powering as possible? Maybe aiming at covering the whole roof with panels, as the basic target?"_

_Charles coughed._

_"You definitely found yourself a challenge for the quiet summer weeks."_

_"And a nuisance for the fall, winter and spring, if all goes well."_

_"OK, let me dig up these specifications I've received last month and we'll see what can be done to make your little house of dreams the shining example of power efficiency."_

 

#

 

"Any ideas how to make them at least consider the possibility?"

"We won't have a chance until we know what really happened. Maybe they had a huge row about something totally insignificant and now they are too ashamed to just start talking?"

"Or maybe they argued about something major and there is no way for them to reconcile?"

"Like what? If uncle Charles is still talking to _both_ of them, then at least none of them had killed someone. Or hurt the other one."

Mina nodded slowly.

"We can probably assume that, yes. But if they quarrelled about something personal, something that he doesn't know about?"

Rose added another piece of paper straw to her basket.

"I suppose we have to understand what it was. Because we can't properly plan without that."

"So... which one do we ask for what?"

"I'd say both. Because until we know what Mom thinks, we can't convince her to talk to him, and the other way round is valid, too. He can send aunt Georgina to hand you over and pick me, if he decides he doesn't want to talk to Mom. Or they even could ask aunt Jane and uncle Charles to switch us, and avoid contact completely!"

"OK, so we interrogate them - carefully - and text the outcome to each other."

"We have to put our own numbers in the other's phone. And label them so that nobody can guess."

"Easy. We've met so many kids on this camp, at least half will be exchanging numbers. You can put mine in your phone as... Sharon. And I put yours..."

"I know a Sharon, so better not. But something starting with an S, just to make sure we have it in more or less the same place?"

"Susan?"

"Susan is fine. No Susans at my school, at least."

"And now when we text, adults will think we're just gossipping with a girl from the camp."

"Which will be perfectly true."

 

#

 

_The courthouse was cool and the corridor provided a place for them to sit and lean on a stone wall. They waited in silence as Andrea prepared her documents._

_"It will be all fine, Lizzy" she said finally, smiling slightly. "This should be quick and neat and we'll get your money - and appropriate compensation - in no time."_

_Jane smiled at the lawyer, looking over her sister's bowed head._

_"Now, we'll be called in like, maybe, half an hour" Andrea checked her watch. "I'll go and fetch a coffee, OK? Anything for you two?"_

_"A black tea? Lizzy?"_

_"No, thanks" came a quiet reply. "Thank you for coming with us, Andy."_

_"It's my job, Liz. And I_ _**love** _ _pulling their whiskers. All these old men with their suits and important faces and then you and me and our perfectly collected evidence. Now, latte for me, tea for Jane?"_

_"Yes, thank you. And... pick a bottle of water when you are in the cafe, could you? The fountains here look nasty."_

_"Sure will" the young lawyer placed her binder on her seat and marched down the corridor jauntily._

_"Good thing Mina is at the camp and she doesn't have to witness all this... crap" Elizabeth ventured quietly. "Thank you, Janey."_

_"It will do her good, I'm sure. She is very self-sufficient, you know it. She needs a chance to spread her wings without our whole family making remarks and holding her down."_

_Elizabeth sighed and leaned back._

_"I don't want to hold her down - or back, or whatever. She has to have space to grow."_

_"Lizzy, you are_ _**not** _ _the one holding her down. You are the one lifting her up and giving her the needed push."_

_The younger woman traced a line down the length of her skirt._

_"And what about..."_

_"She is fine. She is OK. Growing up like she's supposed to."_

_"Maybe I should..."_

_Jane's cool palm caressed her cheek._

_"Think about it, Lizzy. It may be good for all of you."_

_"It's just that..." she trailed off. "I maybe hoped he would answer, one day."_

_"What do you..."_

_"Tea!" Andrea handed her the paper cup. "And your water, icy cold. Straight from the freezer, so it still has actual ice inside. And Lizzy, I know you didn't want anything, but I can't have you fainting on me when it's our turn, can I?" she pressed a small cup of very milky tea into Elizabeth's hands. "And it's our turn in a moment, because apparently someone didn't show up, so they are moving the schedule by fifteens minutes."_

_Elizabeth took a long sip and nodded._

_"Thank you, Andy. It wouldn't look very well if I collapsed in front of the judge when I'm trying to prove that I'm as capable as any guy in the industry, now can I?"_

_"Would totally spoil your image as a self-sufficient and independent modern woman. Drink your tea, ladies, and let's go and fight for equal compensation."_

 

#

 

"Mom always helps me to unpack, so let's make sure we didn't mix up any of the clothes."

"I'm not sure I can remember what is mine at this point" Rose picked up a pair of panties. "OK, I will make a heap of what I'm _sure_ is mine, you make yours and we'll discuss the leftovers."

"Each of us packs herself, picks the outfit for tomorrow and..."

"And then we swap. It's just a bit weird."

"Just make sure we also have all the right cables and connectors. Or it will be a very awkward time before we find replacements."

"And shoes, don't forget about shoes."

"Guitar" Mina said with trepidation. "Oh, Lord. I forgot."

They stared at the instrument they had managed to ignore for the past six weeks.

"How could we have forgotten a whole guitar?" Rose asked, sitting down heavily.

"Well, I happily did" Mina shrugged. "Good thing I was supposed to _learn_ playing it this summer. So you'll just have to explain that... you didn't have time. That's all."

"She will be disappointed, won't she?"

Mina sighed, puffing out her cheeks.

"A bit. But tell her about something else you've picked up at the camp. Like, I don't know..."

"Plushie sewing" Rose provided with distaste. "I can ask her to help me make some for the little ones. Not that I'm a fan of sewing, but if I have to..."

Mina patted her hand.

"Mom will love the idea. Don't worry."

"Now, let's make sure we don't mix up the t-shirts. Too many white ones here..."

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And soon there will be goodbyes, and some hellos.  
> Also, what do you think about the parents?


	6. And then we soar so high

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mina and Rose go home. Or, well.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally! This one is more than 2x the size of the last chapter. I hope I managed to weed out all weird errors, but if you see something obviously idiotic, please let me know.  
> After rewriting this all several times, I think I'll need someone's help - not a full beta, but just to have a look at the girls' dialogue. I speak fluent corpo-English, I can definitely write the grownups, but the kids language is terra incognita for me...

Mina sighed, heaving up the rolling suitcase to put it on the tiny porch.  
"You know what..." she felt her voice tremble. "Even... even if this doesn't work out. Even if we are found out in like a week time. We will still have that August."  
"And a bit of July, and a bit of September" Rose corrected.  
"Less poetic. But yes. And we still have phones and e-mails. They can't stop us from talking."  
"And I suppose, well, that once we are switched back, even if _they_ don't want to meet, for whatever serious grownup reason there is, maybe we could use aunt Jane and uncle Charles to meet. I mean, if they go on vacation with all _five_ of their children, don't they need babysitters? And you've been doing this anyway all along, so it should be even easier with _both_ of us."  
"And on next holidays we'll be almost fifteen, which means we'll be, like, responsible and stuff."  
They sat for a moment, looking at each other, then snorted in laughter.  
"So... go and meet Mom. The buses will be stopping at the parking lot of one of the nearby gyms. She should be there to pick you up, but you will have to really look for her."  
Rose frowned in suspicion.  
"Why?"  
"Because we're not the shortest ones in the year without a reason. Mom is, like, barely two inches taller than us. You won't see her over the crowd, so stay alert."  
"Ah. Well. You will probably get picked up by aunt Georgiana, as she's the one who mostly has free time in the middle of the day. But whoever it is, will probably call ahead, so just pull the right photo up on the tablet and focus on it."  
"I just hope it won't be Anne" Mina grimaced, pulling on her jacket.  
" _Aunt_ Anne, remember. All proper and respectful to your elders. And try not to make fascinated noises when you get closer to the house. All our guests do, but _I_ am not supposed to, you know."  
"Really. What else am I supposed to remember to do? Wipe my nose, brush my teeth..."  
"That would be good, but it's your business. Your teeth to rot" Rose rolled her eyes. "Just... let's make an effort, OK? I don't want to be riding back north in a week."  
"Same for you. And don't go too weepy on Mom if she tells you some hard stuff about Dad. I will try not to be overtly outraged if someone talks about Mom, too."  
Rose sighed in exasperation.  
"Yes. Remember to be cool. You belong there. It's your home - as much as mine. So. Basically. Go home to your father, Mina. And I will go home to my mother."  
Mina felt her eyes tearing up, sighed, blinked and nodded. That was it. That was the day. Just a short bus ride and she'd be meeting the unknown part of her family. The aunts, the great-aunt (the witch, she added) and _the father_. She swallowed with a shudder.  
"Yes. I will go to the wilderness of Derbyshire, and you will go to the best city on the entire planet. Tell Mom... God. Tell her that you want to go shopping in Camden Market because you missed it. Or... whatever. Be clingy. I'm always clingy after the school trips, she even complains about it. You have right to be clingy for a _week_ at least after this summer. Use that time. Who knows when you will get a chance again."  
Rose nodded sharply.  
"You can be clingy, too. Dad always acts surprised when I hug him, but I suppose it's because aunt Georgiana isn't really one for touching people, and who would want a hug from aunt Anne or aunt Catherine...? But he likes it, so, you know. If you are a bit _too_ clingy, he won't notice, because, well. Camp, time, stuff. Anyway" she sniffed a bit. "Let me know when you arrive, OK? And if nobody shows up, or..."  
"I will. Big sister. You call me too if Mom doesn't show up for some reason, clear? Or, well. Call _her_ , she's the one you are supposed to be calling, anyway."  
They slowly descended the stairs, dragging the collected luggage behind them.  
Considering that camp staff left them more or less alone in their cabin outside of organised activity hours, it was a bit of a surprise when they found Miss Sarah waiting for them at the end of the little path linking their "house" with the main camp road.  
"Now, ladies. I hope - I _see_ \- you found a common ground and managed to not kill each other, either on purpose or by simply making the other explode from frustration. Your behaviour - and I mean both of you - had much improved and I hope you too saw the benefits of this, rather drastic, solution."  
They exchanged looks and smiled in perfect sync.  
"Yes, Miss Sarah" Mina finally said. "Mina and I... We will be the very best friends, I think."  
"Stop it, Rose" Rose poked her in the ribs. "We already _are_ , you idiot."  
"Who are you calling an idiot, idiot?"  
Miss Sarah smothered a chuckle.  
"Now, I came to tell you the hours for your busses. London group will be leaving at noon exactly, and it's supposed to be no more than two hours ride - but, you know. End of hols and who knows. The one going to Derbyshire and stopping in Lambton is scheduled for half past eleven, so you two..." she glanced at her watch. "Have at least half an hour more before this group is called. Everyone who is ready is coming down to the cafeteria, there are some sandwiches and sweets there, or if you need to take something for the road, there will be boxes and water, too. You sure you packed everything?"  
"We even checked under the beds" Rose nodded. "Rose? Help with the suitcase needed?"  
"Nah. You go, I'll pull this monster somehow. Next time I'll know that backpacks are better."  
"Sure you will. Come on, miss Darcy."  
"Coming, miss Bennet. Coming!"  
  
####  
  
 _She had to pack everything carefully and in order. Most of the job was done, but she still had to finish the actual quilting of both pieces and sewing on the matching borders - yellow on the green one, and green on the yellow one._  
 _She still had to make a choice, but there was a whole month left to do that._  
 _Once the work table was cleaned and the corkboard stored behind her wardrobe, the flat looked at least normal - if not perfectly clean. The smaller bedroom was aired and the bed was made with fresh sheets, all the clothes were washed and repaired - and a small heap of "too small" was waiting for Mina to review it before handing them over to younger cousins._  
 _Nothing ever got wasted in the Bennet family. There was always a younger cousin who would happily take the unneeded clothes off Mina's hands._  
 _She sighed. If only Mina wasn't the oldest, they wouldn't have to buy everything as the first ones. Sometimes it annoyed her that **she** was the one that others inherited stuff from._  
 _Her laptop chimed with the new e-mail signal, so she wrapped up the last scraps, stuffed them into the dedicated bag and opened the screen to see if the last version deployment went through correctly. She dearly hoped there would be no errors because the next paycheck depended on the quality of the piece of software she had been writing in the killing heat of the summer._  
 _The smell of baked apples slowly filled the flat._  
 _It seemed like the version was accepted in full and there were no code quality issues. She clicked the automated invoicing form and filled in the working hours, planned working hours, a list of design changes raised during the coding and testing process and a nice, satisfactory '0' for the number of major issues._  
 _"Very nice" she said into the darkness of the flat. "Very nice, Bennet. Let's just hope they want another piece, soon."_  
 _She clicked "generate" and reviewed the outcome quickly. The sum was satisfactory, for a job of that size, but not every company was as generous in their freelancing contracts._  
 _"Now, time to get at least a nap" she yawned. "Also, talking to myself in an empty flat. Sign of definite lack of socialisation. I'll have to take Mina... Note!" she said loudly._  
 _A soft beep answered._  
 _"Check movies for tomorrow and day after, find something reasonably appropriate for Mina. End note."_  
  
####  
  
The cafeteria was full of girls, shouting over each other and exchanging e-mail addresses, telephone numbers and Facebook invitations. After six weeks of semi-isolation - all on their own, except for seldom group activities and trips - they felt a bit overwhelmed with the noise.  
Mina pressed her lips together and parked Rose's suitcases in the small alcove with other luggage. Her own backpack quickly thumped to the ground next to it, and the guitar was carefully hung on one of the cloakroom hooks.  
"Wow" Rose whispered. "I don't think we've seen that many since the introduction day."  
"Yep. I think that isolation cabin was the best thing that had _ever_ happened to us."  
"Definitely. For more than one reason, girl."  
"Oh, yes, miss Bennet. For more than one reason."  
"Shall we, miss Darcy?"  
"We absolutely shall."  
They made their way towards the tables, where the tired kitchen staff were handing out the packets of sandwiches, cookies, apples and bottled water so fast they seemed to have four arms each. Mina snagged two and handed one to her sister, whom she now followed to the open table where food to be eaten immediately was offered.  
Most of the girls were moving around, jostling each other, poking ribs, slapping shoulders, shoving and hugging, but at the table, carefully wedged into a corner, one thin, tall girl sat, her head hanging low over a piece of paper.  
"Hey... Joana?" Mina tapped her shoulder. "Joana, what's wrong?"  
The girl looked up and pushed her glasses up.  
"Nothing" she said, shrugging. "I'm just..."  
Mina sighed.  
"You want water?" she asked finally. "Or something? I know you go on the same bus as me, but I'm guessing more than two hours farther north, right?"  
"Rose? What's wrong?" her sister showed by her elbow, chewing on a small tortilla wrap. "Joana? All right?"  
Joana looked at them, frowning.  
"Why are you suddenly so interested?"  
Rose made a non-committal grunt.  
"Because you look like you're worried about something, and everyone else seems rather happy. So it's unusual. Come on?"  
Joana took off her glasses and carefully stored them in her breast pocket.  
"I just got this" she weaved the piece of paper. "Saying my Mom is not allowed to pick me up at the bus station. My parents..." she swallowed hard. "They divorced. When I wasn't there. And Dad won the custody. I... I had no idea there was something wrong! Why did they do this?"  
She sniffed, rather ineffectively.  
"Here" Rose handed her a package of tissues. "Take it, I won't need them for the next few hours. At least until I get back to London, I suppose."  
"Thanks" Joana blew her nose and dabbed at her wet cheeks. "I don't get it. Like, I never saw them fight. Or argue, or whatever. Dad travels a bit, Mom stays at the office a lot, but... I didn't think it was something..."  
"Shh. Don't worry" Mina patted her shoulder. "You will go home and talk to your Dad. If he is OK, he should be able to tell you everything."  
"He's... He's cool. But still!"  
"So, they just... went behind your back, like?" Rose asked, frowning now, too. "You didn't know, they never told you and... and the judge didn't like, ask your opinion, who you want to be with?"  
Joana nodded, miserably.  
"I would have said _Dad_ , you know" she said finally, after blowing her nose again. "But... but I would actually want _both_ of them. Because this doesn't make _any sense_."  
Mina and Rose exchanged a worried glance.  
"Rose, take my lunch, for Joana, OK? I will get myself a new box, but your bus is leaving in like, ten minutes, so you should probably get going."  
"Thanks" Joana whispered and sighed. "I... I just wish they told me. Maybe I could have done something to make them stay together."  
"They are grownups" Mina finally said, slowly and haltingly. "I mean, they make decisions. For themselves. They..."  
"But these decisions also hurt kids, sometimes" Rose added smoothly. "So I think you should ask for their explanation. A proper one."  
"Yep. And remember that they did this without you there, so it's not your fault."  
"Not like you did anything specific to make them split, right?"  
Joana shrugged and finally stood up.  
"Gonna have to talk to Dad" she took a breath and steadied herself. "Thanks for the lunch, Mina. I know you two mostly kept to yourselves, but" she shrugged "you're cool, I suppose."  
"Don't worry" Rose patted her shoulder. "I'll help you two with the luggage. She has suitcases, so she will be no help at all. Come on."  
Mina took both their packaged lunches and they pushed through the crazy, milling crowd back to the entrance.  
"You know, we both live with single parents" Rose said suddenly. "So, well. Not that I remember my parents divorcing, but..."  
"Yep" Mina added. "So, we kind of maybe know a bit of what it feels like."  
Joana pulled on her denim jacket.  
"Yeah" she said slowly. "This will be... different. I mean, Mom was mostly there in the mornings and late at night, but always there, every day. And Dad travels, so sometimes he's away for two, three days. But if he is at the office, normally he is back by five and works in the kitchen, so..." she trailed off for a moment, blinking. "I wonder where I'm going to _live_ " she said finally, softly. "Oh, God. I suppose we'll have to move. Or something."  
Rose picked up her suitcases and handed them over to Mina.  
"You will see in five hours, yeah? Maybe..." she glanced at her sister. "Maybe we could give you our numbers? I mean, if you want to call someone and just, you know. Rose has my number, so you can copy it from her on the bus. If you want to, I mean."  
Joana blinked.  
"I... sure, thanks. I mean, I thought you two were like, you know. BFF and nobody else. Especially with you looking almost the same. Even worse, once Rose cut her hair, you know?"  
"I hated that braid" Mina said with feeling. "This was the first chance to finally get rid of it. And nobody at home will be able to do _anything_ about it because hair doesn't grow on command!"  
"She basically wanted to be able to just wash it and be done, instead of spending like, an hour, combing it" Rose added cheerfully. "Now, your stuff? Where is it?"  
Joana shouldered a small backpack and a duffel.  
"Just this. I think I'll manage. But thanks for offering."  
"No prob. Now, come here, miss Darcy" she hugged Mina. "You will call?"  
"Sure. Text me once you're in London. Take a pic of something nice."  
"Let me know when the class trip is scheduled, OK? I'll be there to annoy your classmates."  
"Our bus is being called" Joana tapped Mina's shoulder. "Come on, Rose. Thanks, Mina!"  
They nodded for the last time.  
"Hug Dad for me" Rose whispered, trying to stop tears.  
"Kiss Mom for me."  
"Derbyshire! Everyone to Derbyshire and north, the buses are ready and leaving in five! You know your numbers, please get into lines for the right buses!"  
"Bye, Joana" Rose squeezed her arm. "Get my phone number from Rose and text us if you feel like you need to vent."  
The taller girl nodded and followed Mina out of the cafeteria.  
 _God, that was weird. But, I suppose, good for a dress rehearsal._  
"Mina, where is your lunch?" one of the aides tapped her shoulder. "Don't you at least want some water?"  
She shook herself out of the reverie.  
"Yes, right" she licked her lips. "I gave mine to one of the girls who were leaving earlier, she didn't have time to fetch her own. I'll pick something up. Thank you."  
"OK. Make sure to get water at least, because today is promising to be rather warm. And the traffic is going to be bad, so I don't think you'll get there in less than three hours."  
She smiled and walked over to the kitchen station, getting another bag of food.  
"Your sister already left?" the woman unloading the crates of water bottles asked. "I thought..."  
"I don't have a sister" Rose smiled blandly. "We are just friends. We look alike."  
"No way" another helper interrupted her. "I mean... no way."  
"Well, we have different parents" she answered.  
"I thought you were, like, _twins_ " the cook cocked an eyebrow.  
"But we were even born on different days" Rose shrugged. "Just a weird coincidence. Happens."  
"If you're sure..." one of them made an uncertain noise.  
"Yeah. I'm from London, she's from the north. She'd never even seen a big city, you know? And this is my first time ever in actual, like, countryside. We have nothing in common, except for the noses and hair colour."  
"If I were you I'd ask my Mum some questions" the package was handed to her with the advice. "I mean, maybe you're cousins? Or something? Wouldn't it be nice to find out you have some more family?"  
"Sure. Yet another cousin to add to the bunch I already have" she snorted. "I definitely plan to ask everyone at home who she might be to us."  
"Ah, you see. Great idea. Now, you should run, of your bus will leave and what would you do then?"  
 _I have to text Mina. She should know..._  
She wasn't really quite sure what it was that she felt Mina should know. It wasn't as if the kitchen staff knew their names or could track down their parents, right?  
 _Right?_  
  
####  
  
 _The architect of the team seemed reasonably optimistic. Also, he was already after a call with Charles, which usually put people in good mood, even if they had to deal with William immediately afterwards._  
 _"It is a bit of a challenge, I must say" the man surveyed a bit of land they chose. "I mean, we can absolutely do it. And with Charles' suggestions, and using the terrain itself to facilitate some aspects..." he hummed to himself for a moment. "Davey! Come here and tell me if the ground is drawn at the correct angle."_  
 _His partner checked the instruments and compared to the plan draft._  
 _"Seems so. The slope is rather flat, but depending on the planned area..."_  
 _William tuned them out for a moment as they discussed the appropriate usage of support to avoid loose dirt being flushed down into the building site during rain. He carefully surveyed the small spot - a bit farther from the main road, a bit more in the gardens - the part not covered by the heritage conservation agreement - and tried to map the future house in his head._  
 _"Do you have the general idea as to the number of rooms, the setup of the house? Anything specific you want me to include? We could put the garage on the sub-level and use the slope to make the ground floor entrance directly from the ground, too. And put a bit of a terrace over the garage, to allow additional area there, if you need it for storage or whatever else you come up with later on."_  
 _William frowned._  
 _"I didn't really think that far, Jonathan" he smiled slightly. "But I think that this arrangement you're suggesting has merit. The house should be able to provide for... Let's say, five, no, six people. Plus guests. Add shared ensuites to that, and make ground floor mostly kitchen, functional areas and lounge. A fireplace. I'll ask Charles later if he can suggest some reasonable solution - we all love an open fire, but if I want this to be eco-friendly and energy effective, then the setup for fireplace needs to be adequate, too."_  
 _"There are some nice new solutions for that, or you could go for a custom design. You could capture the heat from the fire, use it to heat water and use that to warm up the bathroom floors, or something like this. Or even add a split heating on a thermostat - if the fire from the fireplace is big enough, the water will not be additionally heated, but if it's not, then electric backup will turn on. Plus you can install air conditioning programmed separately for each room, and that, with insulation on the walls and between the rooms, will allow you to turn off the heating in the parts of the house that you don't use. There is this new fancy system that allows you to manipulate setting separately for each room, add the windows opening and closing as triggers for a change in heating - no sense to run it full blast if someone opened the windows and is now heating the outside while airing the room. You can also program the heating to start on a timer, for example if you leave for a few days and want the house to be warm by the time you get back. It's rather well configurable, with a possibility to plan the whole day cycle of warming and cooling, some nifty default settings and really advanced capabilities if you dig into it. There are whole schools running on it, where they program the lessons plan, the weather, add window tracking and yearly schedule, so after winter break classes are heated before the kids arrive, stuff like this."_  
 _William blinked. Jonathan was normally a man of few words - a sentence here, a remark there._  
 _"You seem to be rather enthusiastic about this" he smiled slightly. "And I must say, it does sound promising. Is it possible to combine several sources of heating?"_  
 _"I suppose so. We could ask the company if you want to use the solar panels, the fireplace and additional electricity..."_  
 _"I suppose whether the power comes from the panels or the power plant, it's still the same electricity. But it would be good to have the fireplace water thermostats added in the same system, just to make sure we don't have to oversee more than one and to ensure they are working together correctly. I'd rather not spend half of my next winter fiddling with the controls to make sure two systems cooperate."_  
 _"We can definitely contact them for details. If you make this house a pilot project and promise to consider using their systems in future buildings..."_  
 _"Ah, ah. Let's not get ahead of ourselves. First, ask them if they have appropriate modules of that system ready. Maybe they do, you never know. Then, once I have your design proposal, we can budget the system, plus the panels, taking into account what kind of installation it has to be - brands, specific models, etc. Let's put it plainly, Jonathan" he bit his lip for a moment. "Basically, there are no limits. This is supposed to be a model, well-planned, eco-friendly but also human-friendly house. I don't want to compromise the heating, insulation or power efficiency, but on the other hand, all the installations and needed special infrastructure must be placed in such a way that they don't interfere with everyday life and they aren't overly challenging for everyday usage. No main power switch behind a screen in the smallest cellar room, or stuff like this."_  
 _The architect nodded in understanding._  
 _"Of course. I will have a proposal draft ready day after tomorrow. Please text me if you have any specific requests as to what I should add - a book room? A gym? What kind of kitchen plan do you want - open, or separate?"_  
 _William frowned._  
 _"I will check with Mrs R. She may have some input regarding the setup of the kitchen, laundry and so on. Can't annoy one's housekeeper by not consulting on such vital details, after all."_  
 _"Well, with separated kitchen, most bad smells will be contained - if you add appropriate ventilation. But on the other hand, if you have something nice being done, the open plan makes the whole house smell of baking. My daughter wanted baked apples yesterday, and by the time they were done, we were salivating just because of the smell."_  
 _"Well, with a closed kitchen you can always open the door. With the open plan, there is no way to isolate it."_  
 _"That is definitely true. Go, ask the woman what she wants in her kitchen. And you should consider carefully any other functions you want covered. A music room? Your sister, she plays the piano, right? You could consider adding soundproofing, too. Stuff like this. The kid, doesn't she have some messy hobby? Maybe a storage closet for her stuff? Bike shed? Whatever else you can think of. Remember, William" he patted the taller man's shoulder. "If you want to build that house from scratch, it's better if you include everything you can think of possibly needing. Living in the mansion is very exciting and romantic, I suppose, but it's a house that was designed two hundred years ago, with completely different people in mind. Don't limit yourself to just making this a nicer and brighter version of the old house."_  
 _He frowned._  
 _"You... are right. Definitely. Actually, if you don't mind - could you send me a few examples of what you did recently on a similar scale? Not anything detailed, but having a look at what people do include may give me some new ideas."_  
 _"Sure. There are visualisations that the office stores just for occasions like this. I'll put together a portfolio and send it to you in the evening. You could have a look at it with Mrs R and the kid, you know. Youngsters have ideas that we old men wouldn't even consider. Also, think of the furniture you want to use and all the stuff you have right now, where to put it, what in storage, what should be available for everyday use... If we want this house to work correctly, the people inside must be comfortable with it."_  
 _"Rose..." he chewed the inside of his cheek. "Yeah, I can ask Rose. Sure. Maybe she will think of something that I missed. Definitely, yes."_  
 _"See? That's the spirit. Now, go. Go and pick up the kid. You've taken the day off and I'm sure it wasn't only to meet **me**."_  
 _William snorted and clasped Jonathan's hand._  
 _"Thank you for the help" he offered. "I mean it. This thing... this has to be done just so. And I trust you to be the one to make it happen for me."_  
 _"My professional reputation depends on it."_  
  
####  
  
The bus was stuffy and smelled vaguely of mold, as many such buses usually did. Mina and Joana quickly stored their bags in the luggage compartment and boarded, taking seats in the third row.  
"Take the window seat" Mina suggested reasonably. "This way, if you fall asleep, I won't wake you up in Lambton."  
Joana slid by her, smile a bit tremulous, and Mina dropped heavily on the aisle seat.  
"It's only two hours, but unless they tell everyone to sing, I should be asleep in twenty. I just hope I'll wake up in time for Lambton" she smiled. "Now, do you want our numbers? I really mean it, and Mina too. And we both know how weird people are when they find out you live with just one parent."  
Joana finally pulled out her phone and allowed Mina to add both numbers to her contact list.  
"Thank you" the taller girl said, pocketing it. "I mean, I have no idea what is going on. Maybe..." she sighed. "Thank you, anyway."  
"No problem. Anytime you want to rant or whatever, let me know."  
They settled into a silence from that point, Joana nodding off to the rhythm of the bus movements and Mina, wide awake despite the silence, staring nervously ahead, counting the minutes and quietly checking her location on google maps to ensure she wouldn't miss Lambton. The minute she saw the town name appearing on the phone screen, she felt small shakes starting somewhere in the general vicinity of her heart.  
 _This is happening. This is really happening. There will be someone picking me up, and this **is**_ _happening. My new family. Old family. Whatever. Family._ _ **Father**._  
She swallowed, forcing her breath to calm down, looking at still-sleeping Joana and trying to ease the shaking to avoid waking her companion up.  
Finally, finally, the dot marker of the town zoomed in and became a street map. And then it zoomed in a bit more, and the streets _were there_ , all around her. The bus was going down one of the main streets, straight towards the town council parking lot.  
She inhaled and refrained from waking Joana, quietly freeing herself from the seat, picking up her small bag and the lunch package. As the driver herded the local kids out, checking their names on a long list, she found herself saying: "Rose Darcy" in slightly trembling voice.  
 _This is happening. My God._  
And then someone was handing out their suitcases, and she had to say: "Rose Darcy!" yet again, to get them to give her the big purple rolling case and the smaller, fuchsia one.  
 _I'm so going to kill Rose for using suitcases for a **camp**._  
And then there was one of the local council staff, checking the list again, and again she said: "Rose Darcy" and this time her voice didn't tremble, or break, or squeak.  
 _I am **Rose**_ _. I'm Rose, I also answer when called 'Darcy' and I_ _ **am** the daughter of William Darcy. The landowner. William Darcy, of Pemberley. Rose Darcy, of Pemberley. Yes, ma'am, that big house outside of town._  
 _Breathe, Mina. Breathe._  
 _Breathe, **Rose**._  
She was herded with the others to some benches set on the side of the parking lot, where more water bottles were being distributed and last contacts were being exchanged, last photos taken. The buses went past them and at the last moment she raised her head to see Joana waving at her, so she waved back, feeling the new reality settle around her more and more solidly.  
 _Dammit, I **am**_ _Rose and I_ _ **will be** Rose to the best of my abilities._  
She shortened the handle of her suitcase, combined her luggage into one elegant (purple) pyramid and sat back. Soon there were passenger cars spilling into the parking lot and kids were jumping up, running towards their parents.  
 _Ssshhhugar. I have no idea who is coming and what the car looks like!_  
She checked her phone, but there were no messages - either from Rose or from any of the grownups of the family. She laid her head on the top bag of the luggage tower and tried to relax, but cramping in her stomach told her that the forgotten lunch and the nerves were doing a number on her.  
Suddenly there was a hand, combing through her short hair, and a rumble of voice asking "So, you cut off your braid, you little imp?"  
And she was raising her head, looking into the bluest crystalline blue eyes, surrounded by tiny wrinkles - _He has crow's feet!_ \- and there was an arm, pulling her in, into the soft cotton of his shirt, and someone was crying and saying "Dad!" over and over again.  
He sat down next to her, holding her to his side, his other hand - armed with a handkerchief - over her eyes, wiping the tears from her cheeks, and there was the rightness of it all, and she sat there and whispered finally "I missed you."  
He dropped a kiss on the top of her head.  
"I missed you, too" he said finally. "Was it _that_ bad? You could have called, you know? I would have picked you up and spirited you away to the seaside..."  
"No, no. It was... it was fine, Dad. I'm just so tired and I kind of forgot to eat anything in the morning, and now..."  
"Now you're dying from starvation. Don't worry. Mrs R spent whole day yesterday cooking 'a proper meal for that poor girl, finally!'. There is a bit of everything, so you can choose whatever you like."  
"Oh" she said, because there wasn't much else she could say.  
"Now, come on. Let's get these cases in the car and go home. Georgiana is waiting for us, so we'd better get there soon. I just have to pick up the papers from the office and we'll be home in twenty minutes."  
 _Home. Pemberley. Rose Darcy, of Pemberley._  
She nodded and started picking up the collection of luggage, trying to organise it in such a way that she could drag them all together, but that same big, gloved hand pulled the biggest piece away from her, freeing her to deal with the smaller ones easily.  
"Come on, ducky. Can't annoy Mrs R by being late for your welcoming party, now can we?"  
"We definitely should _not_ " she agreed quickly, and picked up the rest of the baggage, trailing carefully behind her father to avoid giving away the fact that she had absolutely no idea what their car looked like.  
  
#  
  
She really, really tried to keep it cool. It was her own home, the historical house of D'Arcys, blah, blah, blah.  
And it was beautiful.  
There was a long ride coming from the main road to the house itself, with poplars on both sides, with small bushes between them and a hedgerow just behind them, with a walking path between the trees and the hedges and...  
...and the house at the end of it.  
She heroically smothered the gasp of surprise. No photo on Rose's tablet could have prepared her for _that_.  
Well, no photo on Rose's tablet and none of Rose's stories had prepared her accurately for _father_ either.  
  
#  
  
The car was big, sleek and had sinfully soft seats.  
The man behind the wheel smiled at her at the red lights, his blue eyes brightening as she prattled mindlessly about the activities at the camp - carefully replacing "Rose" with "Susan" - and widening at the crazier stories she shared. He combed his slightly wavy hair back a few times, as it kept falling into his eyes, and she noticed a small patch of silver going from his temple and back. Otherwise, his hair was as black as her own and suddenly she felt a new, fascinating thing.  
 _Belonging_.  
In London, she was the dark sparrow of the family. The all-blonde, all-fair Bennet family. And now, here, was the man responsible for her being _other_ in that bright crowd and her heart fluttered.  
"What's wrong, Rosie? You're looking at me... do I have something on my face?"  
She shook her head.  
"I mean, I have to confess - just don't tell Mrs R - I did eat a pastry during a meeting in the morning, so I was kind of afraid..." he smirked.  
"No, no evidence of the terrible sin of eating pastries on the sly. Just... it's so good to finally see you. Again. I mean."  
He smiled and started saying something but the lights changed, so they drove on in silence.  
  
#  
  
And now they were at the top of the small rise that separated the main grounds from the road and she was trying to breathe in a controlled way, blinking away the tears.  
 _I'm Rose. I'm just going back home. No biggie. Just going home, like every day._  
"Hey, imp. We're home. Just five minutes and you'll be properly back."  
She inhaled and managed a crooked smile.  
"Let's go home then, Dad. It feels like _ages_ since I've left. I hope I won't get lost trying to find the dining room."  
He snorted and restarted the car. Picking a button on his steering wheel he smiled at her.  
 _"William?"_  
"Georgi, we're at the start of the drive. Be home in three, maybe less."  
 _"William Darcy, don't you dare try speeding on our own drive! With your kid in the car!"_  
"Sheesh, little sis. I'm warning you we are almost home and you have to make everyone think I'm crazy."  
 _"Get my niece down here in one piece, you git. I want to hug her."_  
  
#  
  
The house seemed to grow unnaturally as they progressed down the main drive. Now, once they were off the main road, father drove much more slowly and the car rolled quietly, the crunching of the gravel and the delicate purring of the engine not loud enough to drown out the birds singing in the trees on both sides.  
There were people walking across the fields, and people working on them. She could see a few small tractors pulling some farm machinery, two people on horses - not doing anything she could identify, a bit of something very complicated with a number of interesting blades stuck in it and a small herd of sheep.  
"Is it true that grass grows better when it's eaten by sheep than if it's just mowed?"  
He shot her a glance.  
"If we believe the groundskeeper, then yes. They supposedly crop it at the optimum level. Also, they provide natural fertilizer. Why?"  
She shrugged.  
"Just asking. We were talking about random stuff and this one kind of stuck."  
"You were talking about _sheep_ during a _summer camp_?" he looked at her in surprise.  
"At some point" she shrugged. "One of the girls was from Yorkshire, somewhere near Keighley. There was a lot of stupid talking between girls from the country and ones from the big cities, and some of the 'big city' girls said that the cities are better, because you can learn stuff that you'd never see in the 'wilds'. And she talked about museums, cinemas, schools, unis and whatever. And the girl from Keighley started spouting completely random sheep facts. I have no idea if she was making it up or not, that's why I'm asking."  
William rubbed his face, hiding a smile.  
"And what were you, imp? The city girl or the country girl?"  
She sighed.  
"A small-town girl. Boring enough to get both groups to leave me out of their discussions."  
  
#  
  
"What is _that_?" the cold, rather imperious voice croaked the moment Mina exited the car.  
 _Wicked Witch of Derbyshire, totally._  
"That is our traveller, coming back home!" father hugged her shoulders. "Now, ducky, go say hello to your aunts and I will take your cases inside."  
"That is... unfortunate" voice somewhat congested, maybe allergic?  
 _And this is the Wicked Witchlet..._  
The oldest of the three stood at the bottom of the stairs in a full woollen costume - dark green skirt and jacket, plus a high-collar blouse. And a pair of enormous, scaly-leather designer shoes.  
 _Aunt Catherine. I'm sorry, Rose, I didn't believe..._  
"This haircut is terrible" the nasal voice intruded. "This is... we have to do something about it!"  
 _Happy to meet you too, aunt Anne._  
She smiled widely.  
"I'm afraid we can only wait" Mina said happily. "Hello, aunt Catherine. Aunt Anne."  
"This is a deliberate act of..." the older woman sniffed.  
"Removing chewing gum" Mina interrupted flawlessly. "There was no other way."  
"What did you say?" aunt Anne squinted down at her. Very much _down_.  
 _Well, we obviously got the colouring from this part of the family, but the height is all Mom._  
"I said, someone stuck a wad of chewing gum in my hair and it had to be cut off" she reiterated. "We couldn't wash it out."  
"What kind of people were you associating with at that... camp?" aunt Anne sounded as if word "people" was actually "maggots". "I knew, I knew this was a bad idea. If this was her nearest social circle..."  
"Indeed you did, darling. You always have such a good insight into these things."  
"Actually, the girl who did this was _not_ in my social circle. That's why she did it."  
A pair of slender, tanned arms hugged her suddenly.  
"You look fabulous" a kiss on her cheek. "Come inside. Standing here is asking for a sunstroke."  
"Hi, aunt Georgiana" she managed finally. "How good to see you again!"  
  
#  
  
The rest of the day went quietly and without any additional arguments - or _discussions_ \- except for the comments on the state of Rose's clothes, over which Mrs Reynolds was shaking her head for the whole time she unloaded them into the right hampers, with Mina's help.  
"Grass is the worst, little one. If you got any on these beige trousers, we'll be better off dyeing them to match!"  
"I tried to only trip in dark trousers, Mrs R."  
"I'm sure you did, darling, but summer camps are summer camps and dirt gets everywhere. Now, separate your socks into colours, I'm not even going to _touch_ them. Now, the first load. And you will be doing this yourself today, so pay attention. All the whites now, and make sure it's only cotton, because this will be a warm one..."  
They sorted the mound of white and pale and beige into types of textiles, carefully checked the washing instructions on some and finally loaded the machine. Washing liquid added, Mrs Reynolds instructed Mina how to set the program and temperature and watched with slight surprise as her charge did it without really paying attention.  
"Good girl. Did you learn that at the camp, too?"  
Mina shrugged.  
"It's not _that_ hard. Just two knobs here. There are machines with waaay more options."  
"M-hm. I wonder why I'm always the only one even touching these two knobs."  
"I can do it" Mina offered absently. "I mean, I will need help with the dryer, but I can start the washing. If..."  
A rough hand patted her cheek.  
"Dear girl. Thank you. I'll take you up on that - at least in the area of your own clothes. I'll be the one to deal with your Dad's shirts for the time being, hmmm?"  
"Would not dare to risk _them_ , Mrs Reynolds. I'll get this started and... how long this will take?"  
"Two and a half hours, darling. You can come back after six and I will show you how to load the dryer."  
  
#  
  
Rose's room looked _different_. She had the photos on the tablet, but the furniture had apparently been moved and replaced. She stood in the door, trying to understand.  
"Ah" her father stopped just behind her. "I... I thought it needed updating. We can't do much about the walls, but I thought sleeping in that huge, old, creaky thing might have been annoying. So I might have overdone it a bit, but" he pushed her slightly forward, inside. "I replaced most of the really ancient things. I mean, if you want anything to be moved back, it's all still in the house, but..."  
 _Oh. He is afraid I will not approve because he didn't ask me - Rose. **Oh**._  
"No, Dad. That's fine. I mean, I... I like it" she managed to smile honestly enough.  
"I refrained from buying you a new desk chair because at the shop, fortunately, they asked me at the last moment whether I wanted some... unrelated detail. Anyway, it stopped me early enough so I put that one on hold. We can go there tomorrow evening and you will pick one that you like, would that be OK with you?"  
She blinked.  
"Yes, Dad. I'm sorry, it's not like I don't like, I... I was just surprised."  
"Ah. I was... I went a bit overboard, didn't I?"  
She smirked slightly.  
"You might have. But it's not bad. And it will definitely be better to sleep on a bed that doesn't make suspicious noises."  
She saw him relax. As in, visibly relax, shoulders back again, face losing tension, eyes opening wider.  
 _Ouch. Note to self: Dad is worried. A lot. About my/Rose's opinion. Check with Rose if it's normal or just right now._  
"I didn't want to wait to order the furniture when you'd be back, you see" he explained, patting the obviously new wardrobe. "Didn't want you to spend first days in sawdust."  
"Dad. It is _fine_. I'll go with you tomorrow to pick the chair, yes. Everything else is fine. All my stuff is inside, right? Nothing was thrown away quietly when I wasn't looking?"  
"Wouldn't dare to" he pressed a small kiss to her forehead. "But, actually, anyway this is a bit of a temporary solution. I will need your help with the final one, ducky."  
"Dad...?"  
"Tomorrow. I'll show you everything tomorrow."  
  
#  
  
The dinner was opulent and slightly tense, but Mina happily ignored the atmosphere and focused on filling her stomach with a wide assortment of all manner of good food. Apparently Mrs Reynolds didn't stint on preparation of this feast, and there were mounds of vegetables (some of Rose's favourites and some to which she only admitted tolerance), a stew (which Mina almost inhaled), baked potatoes and two bowls of salad (which she very much would have liked to devour, but found herself lacking the capacity to).  
The stares from the aunts - Catherine and Anne - were endless. And derisive. And accompanied by whispers and vague gestures aimed at her. She focused on eating until aunt Catherine put down her cutlery and leaned towards her.  
"So I suppose you would want to go to a similar... experience, also next year?" she smiled, her lips tight and thin.  
Mina frowned. The only discussion they had regarding the future was the vague plan of using Jane and Charles as...  
"Child! Answer when spoken to!"  
She shook herself out of the promising vision.  
"No, I suppose no. I was one of the oldest kids there and I don't imagine it would be that funny in a year. But if there was some sports camp, with..."  
"Sports camp!" aunt Anne sounded appalled. "What do you mean?"  
Mina carefully chewed the piece of carrot she had just bitten into.  
"I don't know. Gymnastics. Or swimming. Or maybe cycling. There are many kinds. Girls were talking about them. Or a foreign language camp - one of the..."  
"Impossible" aunt Catherine pronounced with disdain. "You will not be going to any _sports_ camp. This is not something a proper girl would do."  
"There are even horse riding camps" aunt Georgiana provided suddenly. "This would be something quite appropriate for Rose, wouldn't it, Will?"  
Dad frowned and looked at her in speculation.  
"I think Rose gets a lot of horse riding done at home. But a cycling camp sounds interesting, doesn't it, ducky?"  
She nodded mutely, as her mouth was again full of food.  
"William, you simply cannot say things like that!" aunt Anne protested feebly. "It isn't _proper_ for her to go to... to such..."  
"Why?" Mina managed to swallow and ask, finally. "Everyone goes."  
"Exactly!" aunt Catherine's eyes seemed to light up, which in itself was a scary thing. " _Everyone_. You would be mixing with some very, very inadequate company."  
Mina shrugged slightly and cut off another piece of the fluffy, buttery baked potato.  
"She can't stay isolated from her peers all summer" father said calmly. "I'd say a two, or even a mixed-discipline camp would be the best so that it doesn't focus overly on one area. Maybe cycling, swimming and some kind of interactive sport? Tennis maybe?"  
Mina nodded slowly.  
"We still have time to discuss it, though" aunt Georgiana soothed the atmosphere slightly. "There may be other ideas by April, and then we'll pick this up again, right?"  
Aunt Catherine looked as if she wasn't going to let the topic go at least until Christmas, but father asking aunt Georgiana some quick question prevented her from speaking.  
 _Thankfully!_  
  
#  
  
The room was cool and dark as she entered, and finally, she had time to explore it a bit. Having started the second round of washing, loaded the dryer under Mrs R's supervision and collected the dry clothes, she ran upstairs to put them away. Which she wanted to do quietly and _alone_.  
 _Finally_.  
The wardrobe was full of various clothes she quickly checked - dresses, OK, school uniforms, OK, a drawer of panties, another of socks. All OK. She set the mound of white on her bed and started sorting it, trying to match the object with the right container or shelf.  
Having successfully dealt with the laundry, she checked her surroundings carefully. A bookcase. Some overlap, some new things, good. Just like when they made the comparison of their reading and musical tastes, she felt relief - doubly so - that they weren't either identical or too different. Too similar would have felt unnatural - they were separate people and they had been raised by different families. It would have felt like some creepy magic. Or even creepier, destiny. On the other hand, too different would have been... disappointing. Also, hard to deal with when playing the other person.  
Hopefully, Dad wouldn't make any literary allusions that would quote the 'unknown' part of Rose's bookcase. She pulled the first promising-looking volume from the top shelf - visibly well-read, at least judging by the state of the spine - and dropped it on her bed. Some light bedtime reading, planned.  
The desk was wide, heavy and had four drawers full of random school-related objects - pencils, a pencil case, pens, ink cartridges, brushes, rulers and crayons. She really hoped it wasn't Rose who kept that kind of a mess and that it was simply the outcome of someone repacking the content from the old desk to the new one. Otherwise, she was planning to have a few words with her sister.  
She checked her phone, but other than the short exchange of texts that communicated to each other that they had arrived (and been picked up), nothing.  
 _I wonder what Mom is doing right now._  
  
####  
  
It wasn't something she had ever consciously noticed, but the moment Mrs Bennet - grandma - said it, she saw it herself, too. Due to the simple fact that they practised a very different set of sports, she and Mina were built differently. With the most importantly different parts being her arm and leg muscles, which were quite appropriate for a horse rider and very much _not_ for someone who mainly swims.  
She shrugged, after a little pause.  
"We did a lot of exercise. And there were kayaks. And a lot of climbing."  
Grandma frowned at her.  
"A climbing wall?" aunt Kitty leaned in curiosity. "Or just rocks?"  
"Both" Rose bit into her cookie to avoid providing more details.  
"That's not very ladylike" grandma pronounced.  
"But useful" Mom said with a sigh. "I remember being the shortest in my class. Muscles are a good thing."  
"Elizabeth!"  
  
#  
  
When the long, annoyingly slow bus ride was at its end - when they had passed by various interesting buildings she had no knowledge of, but would love to - and when they finally turned into the parking lot, all the girls were very, very much fed up with each other.  
Not only did the bus smell. Not only had several of them been sick. Not only had someone placed their bag on the overhead shelf, but forgot to close it properly, so all of the contents spilt on the girl directly below. The aide that rode with them decided that the best way to manage restive campers would be to get them to sing.  
 _Kids' songs._  
 _Cartoon tunes._  
 _Even commercials._  
Rose sat there, her jaw tense, her nerves on fire. Not only was she supposed to go to a strange city - strange, _big_ city - to a family she didn't know, to the mother she only knew from photos, to a school she had no idea how to find. But. They. Were. Singing.  
Also, the aide made sure _everyone_ participated.  
The one single blessing that Rose could count was that all the buses were going to the same place, so unlike Mina, she wouldn't have to pay attention and look for her stop. However at some point, she actually wished she would.  
She squeezed her eyes shut and tried breathing slowly, calming herself and preparing for...  
"Bennet! Sing with us!"  
 _My God._  
  
#  
  
The hot, empty and uncomfortably sunny parking lot was like a blessing. She was ready to kiss the soft asphalt even as she shouldered Mina's backpack and dragged the guitar strap over her head. She could have hugged a tree or the nearest fence post. Anything that wasn't moving, lurching, throwing up or _singing_.  
She found a spot on the edge of the crowd and leaned on the wall of the small building, trying to get her breathing under control. Whatever happened next, she had at least managed to get off that bus without any further injury, losing her phone, forgetting her bag or having someone sit on her guitar (although barely). Crowds of people around her prevented her from seeing anything, so she resigned herself to waiting until most of them were gone before she would be able to at least reasonably search for her mother.  
 _Mother._  
She would be meeting the woman from the photo. The person that apparently liked her father well enough to do we-all-know-what with him and to leave one of the children with him, but didn't _love_ him enough to _stay_. The one person who could explain why, for all these years, Rose had felt _incomplete_.  
Her phone buzzed angrily and she nearly dropped it.  
 _From: Susan_  
 _To: Mina_  
 _Arrived. All OK. At home. WOW. Also, Wicked Witch of Derbyshire unhappy with your current haircut. Phone died, couldn't text you earlier._  
She snorted. If not the haircut, aunt Catherine would have found something else to complain about, it was a law of nature. She managed to complain about Dad almost every day, and he was pretty much perfect. Still, even the fact that he ate toast for breakfast could, on a bad day, become the reason for aunt Catherine's complaints. And did, more than once.  
The phone buzzed again.  
 _From: Mom_  
Her fingers suddenly clenched around the small device. Yes, she had read all the texts between Mina and Mom before - they had to, to learn how to text as the other one - but this, this was the first text ever _she_ had received.  
 _I'm at the end of the lot, opposite the gate. You?_  
Slowly and carefully Rose typed her answer.  
 _From: Mina_  
 _To: Mom_  
 _By the building. I'll find you._  
Beep.  
 _From: Mom_  
 _To: Mina_  
 _Stay where you are, I'll help you with the luggage._  
Rose's heart skipped a beat.  
 _She's coming._  
Closing her eyes, she breathed deeply, trying to focus.  
 _Mom is here. She's here, she's..._  
"Oh, Mina, come here, darling" said the loveliest voice Rose had ever heard. There was something slightly musical about it. The simple sentence sounded like a phrase from a song. It sounded like _love_.  
After a few more breaths, Rose finally managed to look up.  
Mom was lovely. Tired, a bit nervous, but lovely. And barely taller than her - just like Mina said. Her hair was done up in a large, messy bun, with strands falling everywhere. Her eyes were luminous hazel, verging onto gold. She was absolutely and without a doubt the prettiest person Rose had ever seen.  
"Mom" she managed to whisper.  
"Oh, ducky, was it _that_ terrible? I'm sorry, but Jane was so sure, and..."  
She could only shake her head.  
"I just... just missed you. That's all."  
Elizabeth Bennet was smiling and relieving her of the guitar. And then Rose found herself held securely, pressed into a soft shoulder - already soaked with her tears, after barely a second - and kisses were being pressed all over her face.  
"My big, brave girl. That was an _awful_ summer. We're not doing that again. No way. I'm never parting with you again."  
 _Oh, Mom. If only you **knew**!_  
"Now, give me your bag and... is that lunch? OK, we'll reuse it somehow... And we're invited to grandma for dinner. I hope there will be something edible, but I suppose after that ride you're not very keen on food, are you?"  
Rose swallowed with distaste.  
"Wow, no, not at all. At least until my stomach recognises the fact that I'm on firm ground, no. That was _nasty_. And they told us to sing."  
Mother frowned at the last remark.  
"But you like singing..."  
"Mom, the only directive was 'louder'. Nobody can like _that_."  
"My poor girl. Come on. It's just two tube stops and there shouldn't be a crowd right now, so we should be there in no time. Now..." she smiled finally and Rose found herself quite ready to focus on that smile and nothing else. "Judging by the fact that the zipper on the guitar bag is still tied with the same piece of ribbon I used - and in the same way - am I guessing correctly that you didn't manage to practice...?"  
Rose groaned.  
  
#  
  
The Tube was terrifying, in a way. Maze of twisty tiled corridors, all alike, branching into unexpected sub-corridors, passages, corners and weird arches. Platforms which apparently were something you just had to learn by heart, as there was no logic in how they were related to the trains on them.  
It was a good thing she could cover fumbling with her Oyster card by having problems with her backpack and one of the bags, or Mom would have spotted her confusion immediately before they even descended to that lower, scary level. And lack of crowds inside helped immeasurably, as she had time to get her breathing under control. The short ride was deafening and exhilarating, and they smiled at each other, unable to talk over the noise. The ride up the long escalator was fun, too - and she didn't even trip at the top - and the city outside was now vastly different.  
The family was... something else.  
The number of fair-haired children was astounding and despite all the photographic preparation, Rose had problems with recognising them in better detail than 'aunt Jane's', 'aunt Kate's', 'Jimmy' and 'Adele'. Adele was the easiest due to age, and Jimmy was helpfully keeping to his mother's lap.  
Grownups were, on one hand, easier, as she had managed to learn the faces better - and knew two of them already - but, on the other hand, inquisitive. And criticising.  
Starting with grandma.  
 _She would have gotten on famously with aunt Catherine. God, they have the same exact way of making me miserable. Well, aunt Cathy is a tiny bit more superior. Grandma just points stuff out and asks in such a way that I feel only like a slob, and not like a lower species of humanity._  
"Because, really. How will these arms look now in a dress?"  
"Like well-muscled girl's arms, Mamma" aunt Jane to the rescue. "And Lizzy can redo any that don't fit anymore, can't you?"  
Mother barely raised her eyes from her tea to smile at aunt Jane.  
The whole meeting was weird. The dynamics that Mina had told her about were even more warped than she had described. Aunt Kitty seemed to be OK but never opposed grandma directly. Aunt Mary focused mostly on Jimmy, who was rather fussy at the moment. Aunt Lydia either fixed Adele's dress, pouted or spoke loudly about completely unrelated stuff.  
Grandfather - grandpa - sat in the corner, smiled silently from time to time and read his newspaper, ignoring the noise in the room completely.  
Rose's eyes strayed to aunt Jane and uncle Charles, the only two persons present she actually _knew_. As uncle Charles carried the sleepy Jonathan around and the girls were running in circles on the grass, Rose had to immediately squash her desire to give aunt Jane a _hint_ that the ruse with the camp had worked. Because she might not have planned it, but she had to at least guess what they would do, didn't she?  
Finally, aunt Jane actually decided to strike up the conversation by herself.  
"So" she moved closer to Rose on the long bench. "Did you make use of the hammer I gave you?"  
Rose nodded slowly, trying to phrase the next sentence as innocently as possible.  
 _OK, if she **didn't** want us to switch, she wouldn't have done this all. So, Rose. Jump._  
"Yes, definitely. I had to hammer in a couple of nails at some point and didn't have time to go to the workshop for a big one. But still, I could have used some good _pliers_. I bet there are some that would match this hammer..." she smiled at aunt Jane's widening eyes and rolled hers, just a bit.  
"I think there might be" aunt Jane's voice squeaked, just a tiny little bit, and mother raised her eyes to check on them.  
"Everything fine, Jane? You sounded a bit weird just now."  
"Perfectly. Just talking to Mina about her birthday present."  
"You should take her to a beautician, Jane. God knows the girl needs it" grandma's voice made aunt Jane wince.  
"Aaand this is our cue" Mom was suddenly up and pulling the guitar strap over her head. "Come on, Mina. We should get you home and start washing. I'm quite sure this backpack had no clean thing left inside. Bye, mother. Dad. Jane, thank you, darling. I'll call you later today."  
"But..." grandma frowned and moved uncertainly. "Why are you leaving already? The food is just heating up..."  
"And Mina had spent three stinking hours on a bus and she deserves some rest. And definitely doesn't deserve hearing your remarks about her looks."  
"But I was just saying...!"  
"You were saying that Jane should take her to a beauty salon, because you think Mina needs it. No. No fourteen year old needs a visit to a beauty salon. _None_. Come on, Mina. We'll pick some food on the way home."  
" _Elizabeth!_ "  
 _Grandma's screech is almost exactly the same as aunt Catherine. I hope they are not related..._  
"Mom, I don't mind, really..."  
She saw Elizabeth sigh.  
"But I do, Mina. I hoped that at least for one afternoon... Come on. Let's go home and deal with your luggage, or you will have to wear your winter clothes tomorrow."  
  
#  
  
The bus ride back home was much more comfortable than the one to London - much fewer children, obviously more Mom's presence and, on the upper deck, some rather fascinating things to see. Rose tried not to gawk too overtly, but managed a look now and then, reassuring herself that she was, in fact, really _in London_.  
"So, were there some nice kids at the camp? Or was everyone basically dreary?" Mom pulled her closer and kissed her temple. "What were you doing for these eight weeks? I was expecting at least a phone call a week, and you went offline for more than a half of the camp!"  
"We were... busy" Rose explained distractedly. "Kind of... a lot of stuff happened and... maybe I got distracted."  
"That sounds ominous. What were you doing?"  
"Kitchen chores, garden, a lot of sports - and I mean some I'm not sure I know names of - and trips, and crafts... well, a lot. And mostly I forgot to power my phone every day, because taking it anywhere outside was always risky, and everyone was any way leaving their electronics in the cabins."  
"That is actually a very good explanation for radio silence" Mom laughed softly. "Now, do you want anything specific? Chinese? Thai? Indian? Because at home we mostly have milk, toast bread, almond butter and eggs and I don't see how we could make it into a dinner."  
"Shouldn't we go shopping?"  
"Definitely. Who knows how your eating habits had changed during the camp! But I hope you still like crepes. We'll have time in the morning to make a bunch, but we need something to put inside them. I'm thinking bilberries and whipped cream, or Nutella and fudge. I think we may also have a jar or two of the blackcurrant jam I made last year. So?"  
Rose swallowed and smiled hungrily.  
"All of them?"  
  
#  
  
Out of the array of options, Rose decided on something that seemed the least threatening and picked Indian, counting on at least not being obliged to use chopsticks. Fortunately, Mina apparently had some definite favourites, so Mom didn't even ask for details, but simply ordered, got handed two huge styrofoam containers and a big package in a bag and they strolled _home_.  
Home turned out to be a tiny, but very bright flat in a rather old building. Despite the fact that outside looked slightly _tired_ with age, inside it was well maintained, with a well-lit hallway, colourful walls and wooden stairs covered with a reasonably clean carpet.  
The flat itself was white-on-white, with beiges and creams and a random splash of feisty orange or rusty red - vases, dried flowers, a huge silk fan pinned to the wall over Mom's bed, a crocheted runner across the white kitchen table - and black, especially the computer equipment. It wasn't something Rose would have chosen for herself, should she ever had a chance to decide on the colour scheme of her own flat, but it made _sense_. It absolutely suited Mom, with her brown jacket, dark orange straw hat - with a brown band - and chocolate brown trousers. And freckles. Rose was already extremely jealous of Mom's freckles.  
Surprisingly, Mina's room was different. Much cooler combinations prevailed, yellows, greens, teals with occasional purples making, curiously, a very consistent whole.  
And there was the Merida duvet cover, with its slightly unevenly sewn sides and wonkily attached buttons.  
  
 _From: Mina_  
 _To: Susan_  
 _Home. Party at grandma's weird. She said I'm so ugly I'll need to visit a beautician. I might have kind of told aunt Jane about us. She looked a bit surprised. How is it on your side?_  
  
 _From: Susan_  
 _To: Mina_  
 _Still trying to understand how Aunt C survived until now and avoided being brained by someone in a dark alley. Aunt A kind of absent. Aunt G is a marvel. Dad is... Dad._  
  
 _From: Mina_  
 _To: Susan_  
 _I hope any essays you write in my name will be kept to a higher standard of literacy and vocabulary._  
  
 _From: Susan_  
 _To: Mina_  
 _Yeah, yeah, sista. I write your essays OK. No worries, yeah?_  
  
 _From: Mina_  
 _To: Susan_  
 _Gonna kill you if you try to submit something like this..._  
  
"Mina? Are you going to finish this, or should I put it in the fridge?"  
She blinked awake again.  
"No, I'm full, thank you. I'll eat the rest tomorrow."  
"Now, go take a bath, because you still stink of the bus - sorry, but that's true - and you absolutely have to wash that hair. You can use my Rehab if you wish, it may help after two months of sun and dirt."  
Rose tried not to show her incomprehension, but simply handed the container with remainder of - whatever that fiery dish was - to her mother and collected the cutlery.  
"Don't wash it, I'll run the whole cycle when I take a break later on. Now, go."  
  
#  
  
She located the teal towel in the basket in her bedroom, as per Mina's instructions, and picked one of the 'sleeping t-shirts' from their box at the bottom of the wardrobe. Still, before she followed her mother's request, she sat for a moment at the desk and tried to understand her sister's way of thinking.  
Whatever they learnt about each other during the camp was a good base - but only a base. Now, here, in that room, in that chair, she _saw_ Mina with new eyes.  
There were dried, pressed flowers arranged under a piece of glass on a colourful cardboard hanging over the door. There was a small glass ball with a snowed-on figure inside, but instead of a Santa or a snowman, it was a small girl in a blue and white coat and a tall white hat. She turned it upside down and back again and the glittery snow fell quietly.  
The floor was covered by rugs in vastly differing styles - a cool, blue-white round one made of thick braided strands, a tiny and very furry brown one and a fluffy purple thing that looked almost alive. There were stained glass ornaments suspended from hooks screwed into the window frame, a constellation of flat-white plastic stars in one of the corners, glued to the ceiling, a poster from Raiders of Lost Ark on the side of the wardrobe and what looked like a tiny space shuttle with two LEGO figurines next to it, on the top shelf of the bookcase.  
Mina was, apparently, _tidy_. Obviously, the amount of space she had in her room was much more limited than what Rose enjoyed back home, so she was, by necessity, much more disciplined. However, what Rose noticed above all were the personal touches.  
The wardrobe almost papered with postcards.  
The wall by the door, painted in tiny flowers.  
The lampshade, stained dark purple and blue, with glittery silver dots.  
The set of quietly whispering bamboo wind chimes.  
The room was so full of _Mina_. The only thing that was missing was Mina herself.  
Suddenly, Rose wished she was back at the camp.  
  
####  
  
Having fallen asleep after her bath and awoken by the most basic need of having to use a toilet, Rose felt a bit disoriented. Wrong room. Wrong home. Wrong parent. Wrong everything. She shook a bit, thinking about Mina. Wishing for Mina's presence.  
 _Get up and stop pitying yourself. You've been a single kid all your life. Eyes on the prize, Darcy. Do your job, and Mina will do hers. If you do it well.._  
She sneaked quietly to the bathroom, checking on her mother on the way. Two huge black screens on the wall, covered with multicoloured text, a shining highlighter keyboard and a sleek white mouse made the desktop setup look like the control room of some weird spaceship. Mother was sitting in a deep, black chair, barefoot, legs crossed. A pint mug of coffee sat on an empty shelf next to the right monitor and a bowl of nuts opposite.  
 _She looks like a magician with a spellbook. Spell-e-book._  
"Go to bed, Mina."  
"I just..."  
"The water is in the fridge. Add lemon to it, you need vitamins. Especially with the way the city smells this year."  
Rose wished there was something she could say to make her mother sound less _tired_.  
"Night, Mom."  
"Night, ducky. I will have to sit here for some time more, so when you wake up, just eat some cereal and read quietly, hm? And we'll go to the park later. Or a movie?"  
"Movie. Movie will be cool."  
"Cool."  
When she was coming back, huge cream-and-teal headphones were isolating her mother from the world around her.  
 _23:15. Time to check in with Mina._  
  
####  
  
A quiet buzz woke Mina up.  
  
 **SUSAN**  
  
She shook away the sleepiness and pressed the green button.  
"Hey" she croaked softly.  
 _"How are you doing?"_  
"Reasonably. You? All OK? Can you talk?"  
 _"Mom is listening to music right now, so I suppose we have a few minutes."_  
"Good."  
 _"So."_  
"Yeah."  
 _"She. Is. Lovely."_  
"So is Dad."  
 _"I mean... she is so..."_  
"Mom. Yeah, I know."  
 _"She said she will be making crepes tomorrow!"_  
"Bilberry or fudge?"  
 _"Both."_  
"I hate you."  
 _"No you don't. I'm sure Mrs R cooked a ton of food."_  
"She did, but suddenly I can't stop thinking about a crepe with fudge filling. Mm..."  
 _"How is Dad? Aunt Georgiana?"_  
"They are fine. Oh, God, aunt Georgiana is so sweet! And, you know, she actually seems a bit more feisty than you described. Aunt Catherine wanted to _discuss_ my - your - plans for next year and both aunt Georgiana and Dad told her, more or less, to shut it. Dad suggested some multi-discipline sports camp, and she was _livid_."  
 _"Now you know what I've been living with..."_  
"Well, you know my side, now, too."  
 _"Yep, grandma is... weird?"_  
"Not news to me, but... what did you write, she said you needed a beautician?"  
 _"Yeah, that aunt Jane should take me to one, because I need it."_  
"And what did Mom do?"  
 _"She just stood up and said we're leaving."_  
Mina sighed heavily.  
"That's what she usually does. I don't know how she can be so... so different."  
 _"What do you mean?"_  
"Completely different person. Like, she writes a lot of women rights articles, and she meets with women who organise various actions, and she is, like, _involved_. I mean a lot. Charity auctions for underprivileged, donations to places that help abuse victims, providing computer classes to women who want to find a new job after being out of work... and that One Billion Rising dancing, too. But when she is at grandma's..."  
 _"Ah. I see what you mean."_  
Mina stared into the darkness of Rose's room.  
"Yeah. So. Any chance for something from our list?"  
 _"No, we had to go shopping, do the laundry, we went to grandma and that didn't exactly help..."_  
"I get it. Buuut! Did you _really_ tell aunt Jane?"  
 _"Kind of. She asked me if I had used the hammer, and if that wasn't an opening, I will eat my - your - Oyster card. So I told her that yes I had and that what I was missing was a pair of matching pliers."_  
"Oh, you're _bad_. What did she say?"  
 _"Just squeaked and then Mom asked her something, and grandma interrupted... and we left."_  
Mina yawned.  
 _"Mina?"_  
"Yeah?"  
 _"I really like Mom, you know?"_  
"She's our Mom, you should like her, I suppose."  
 _"But..."_ Rose sniffed. _"But why did she leave me?"_  
"We'll find out, OK? I'll try asking aunt Georgiana. It looks like I'd have better chances with her than with anyone else."  
 _"I suppose so. I don't really see Dad divulging suddenly how it happened that he had split with Mom, but aunt G may spill, if you play it correctly."_  
"I hope I can. Wish me luck. And be quiet in the morning, if Mom is pulling an allnighter."  
 _"M-hm. Where is the cereal?"_  
"Top shelf by the oven. Blue box is muesli, green container is puffed rice."  
 _"Thanks. Didn't want to look weird in the morning."_  
"Rose?"  
 _"Yes, little sister?"_  
"I really want this to work. So, you know. Keep it cool."  
 _"You too."_  
  
####  
  
The morning started rather early, as Mina managed to wake up before six and couldn't find a place for herself since. She fetched the second round of her laundry from the laundry room (apparently Mrs R had put it in the dryer later in the evening), started yet another washing cycle, this time for 'reds' and sorted the dark clothes in her room. She was on the verge of pulling the drawers out of the desk and starting to sort the mess they contained - had already two on the table top - when Dad knocked on her door, calling her downstairs for breakfast.  
Full of cereal, scrambled eggs and cocoa she watched the strange spectacle of Anne (she couldn't call that ridiculous creature an 'aunt' in her thoughts) moaning over every bite or her toast, discussing in detail what it would do to her sugar levels, blood pressure and digestion.  
 _No wonder Dad eats his as quickly as possible. I wonder where..._  
Aunt Georgiana entered and sat next to her, smiling. The moment she reached for the milk, the other two women fell silent.  
"What in the name of God have _you_ done?"  
Aunt Catherine sounded as if she was going to either die or cast a curse on Aunt Georgiana.  
Mina frowned and looked at the woman next to her.  
"Wow" she squeaked.  
Georgiana looked... different.  
"I'm following the trend."  
"How... How could you..."  
"The hair salon in Lambton opens at seven" Georgiana answered calmly. "And they were very happy to find me a last minute opening when I said I wanted to donate my hair to the cancer wig organisation."  
"Georgiana! What would your dear mother have said?"  
"No idea. But I hope she would have been happy that I provided some poor sick kid with a good wig. What did you do with yours, Rosie? Kept them? They accept even hair cut by yourself, as long as it's more than seven inches. Your braid was at least twice that."[  
Mina blinked and almost agreed. She managed to stop herself at the last second.  
"No, they would not be useful. You know? The chewing gum? Had to throw them away."  
"Aaah, right. Well, there is always the next time."  
"I wonder what your brother..."  
Mina tuned the oldest generation out.  
 _I wonder how Rose managed to stay reasonably sane, living here. I'd have chosen a boarding school over_ _ **them**_ _. Probably aunt Georgiana and Dad make it a bit better. And Mrs R. I hope._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aaaand that's chapter 6. I'm afraid next one will not show up quickly, as it's less than 1k words at this point (and the target is ~10k).  
> So? What do you think?


	7. And part and each of us

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> First two weeks after the camp.  
> Also, first days at the "wrong" schools.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It took me an additional week to finish this, and I would have never managed if not for the help of a dear friend who pointed me towards some helpful websites detailing interesting places to visit in Derbyshire.  
> Solid 15,5k words this time.

_####_

Mina wasn't a particular fan of formal gardens, but everything was better than being stuck inside with aunt Catherine watching her every move, aunt Anne complaining about most everything and Dad talking angrily on the phone in his study. She couldn't even say where aunt Georgiana had hidden herself, but making herself scarce seemed like a perfectly good idea.

The gardens were, in fact, rather imposing. There were trellis constructions overgrown with grapevine, mock-gates between tiny courtyards and lanes, covered by morning glories, and various other structures more or less hidden by all kinds of climbing plants. She could identify sweet pea and climbing roses, and found the latter in abundance, completely disguising a small building in the middle of one of the carefully-cut grassy clearings.

She circled it a few times, but despite looking from all angles and even poking between the thorny branches to get to the material beneath them—white marble—she couldn't work out the function or the origins of the small, wall-less object. It seemed to be a cross between a gate—it had a larger opening in the middle, one Dad could have easily walked through, had it not been filled with rather dangerously armed roses – and a colonnade of some sort, as small pillars were filling in the rest, instead of a full solid wall.

It was symmetrical, with a two-sloped roof, coming to a peak directly over the larger opening, but no specific feature was visible – either a sculpture or a piece of writing—that would betray its character.

"That's weird" she said to herself, just to hear her own voice in that silent, isolated place.

Still, the non-gate stood there, lonely, and wasn't going to answer any questions, so Mina picked one of the flowers and walked down yet another path, looking around in curiosity.

A small corner just behind the next hedge held one of the most wonderful things she had ever seen.

A huge, cultured, well-tended thicket of blackberries.

There were a few types of fruit Mina was obsessed with, one of them being red currants. The other was blackberries. Lovely, yummy, tart blackberries.

She really hoped nobody was planning to pick these today for any specific house-related reason, like preserves. Also, being a cautious child of her mother, she was happy to have a full bottle of water with her, as eating fruit unwashed always made her a bit queasy.

_I will just pick a few. Nobody is going to miss them. And it's also_ _**my** _ _garden, right?_

#

Half an hour later she licked her fingers clean of the sticky juice and regretfully left the still promising-looking bramble. There was a lot of gardens still left to be explored, and she didn't want to give anyone any reasons to complain about her being late for lunch. It seemed however that the section she just entered was going to be her favourite, being an orchard.

Trees of all kinds—apples of various types, pears, plums, cherries and, if she was correct guessing at a distance, walnuts—planted in long rows, more or less regular (but not strictly, seeing as some were grouped closer together), were being tended to by a team of loosely dressed young people, who were carefully wrapping something around each trunk and collecting the fruit in huge baskets. A few of them carried interesting tools, with which they reached into the crowns of the trees and picked the fruit there. The object looked like a rounded rake with a small bag attached and could be used to pick apples from the top of the tree without the use of a ladder.

Mina followed the group for a moment, watching as they emptied the bags into even more baskets and carried them over to the truck waiting on the road nearby.

"Hey, kid."

She jumped and whirled, looking at the man behind her in surprise.

"You Rose, right?"

She nodded quickly, not understanding.

"You may not remember me. Derek. I was here two years ago—worked on the document project."

"Ah. Yes, the... the accounts?"

"Yeah" he stuck his hand out. "Tell your Dad the apples are almost done, just a few still left to ripen. And the pears should be gone by next week, too."

"Ah... Right. Will tell him, sure."

One of the women with the fruit pickers waved to them as she approached and smiled widely when Derek pecked her on the cheek.

"This is Pat, she was on the house crew last year."

Mina chewed her cheek for a moment. This was one of the moments that Rose's hurried teachings couldn't help her.

"Hi" she smiled uncertainly. "I'm sorry for whatever my aunt did."

Pat snorted and patted her on the shoulder.

"You shouldn't be sorry, little one. She should be, you know."

"But she never will" Mina shrugged. "So someone should express... apologies."

"Your dad already did. Better money than I'd ever get waiting tables in Lambton or helping my parents run the B&B."

"And the lodgings are OK, too" Derek added with a smirk. "Way better than our dormitories."

"God, everything is better than dormitories. But, anyway. Your dad said last year... Anyway. Don't apologise for your aunt, kid."

Mina smiled in relief, as Pat burdened Derek with her picker.

"Hold this for a moment, you git, I need to go and I can't take this long thing with me there."

He snorted and made a few moves with the picker, trying to catch a butterfly fluttering over their heads. Mina tracked the movements of the tool with curiosity.

"You want to try using this, kid?" he suggested as they approached the group.

Mina looked up at the pear tree they were standing under and then at the long pole.

"Me?"

"Sure" one of the girls standing on the other side of the trunk waved hers. "Come, have a look. I'll show you how to use this thing."

The next hour and a half were the funniest, most relaxed and tiring she had had since coming to Pemberley. Her arms burned with effort, her neck was probably permanently stuck in one position from peering between branches and she had most probably hit herself on the head at least a dozen times before getting hang of the right method. By the time she had to run back to the mansion, she had brought down at least ten full bags of fruit and made friends with all the students—despite the age difference. They didn't seem deterred by the fact that she was barely fourteen—as long as she could pick apples, they were fine with her joining in.

#

The way back to the house took her on a different route than she used to find the orchard—much shorter and straighter but crossing an old country road coming up to the house from the side. A small marker for historical site pointed away from the mansion and had a stylised church icon painted on it. A small plaque below explained, in three languages, the importance of the church in Kympton and the historical value of the paintings therein.

 _Ah. The bus stops in Kympton, so this will be the road I would use to get back home._ —

A firm plan to explore the road in advance of the first day of school was immediately made and she quickly ran back to the big house. Time for lunch, and not a moment too soon.

#

The explorations would have to wait. Dad had managed to get rid of whoever was bothering him on the phone, which was nice, but on the other hand, he asked about _Star_. Of course, she hadn't visited the horse. There were things she wasn't planning on doing voluntarily. One of them was going into the stables.

#

The horse was big.

Mostly all horses were big, but one in the first stall seemed bigger than anything Mina had ever seen up close. From Rose's description, that was, fortunately, _Dad's_ horse. Very carefully, she moved behind it to the next stall.

The animal there— _Star—_ was indeed much smaller than her monster neighbour. That didn't mean she was in any manner more acceptable as a pet. A cat was a pet, or a hamster. Maybe a dog, if it wasn't taller than Mina's knees. Not a horse. A horse was a means of transport, and one much less reliable than a bike at that. Also, bikes didn't need feeding, cleaning after and exercising, and this was what Star apparently required.

One good thing was that apparently Dad had hired another team of students for the summer and one of them was earning his pay by taking care of the stables. That means that Mina had at least three more weeks to learn where everything in the stables was located, how to use the equipment and what exactly to do with Star.

She sighed. Why couldn't Rose have been training something that didn't involve big animals? Running? Archery? On the other hand, she was quite happy that she didn't have to risk ballet lessons. Who knew what kind of gaffes she might have made _there_. At least the horse wouldn't be able to tattle on her.

She looked at a stable helper who was tending yet another horse—slightly bigger than Star—and watched as he approached the animal calmly and made soothing sounds as he did so.

_Now or never._

####

Mom was sitting on the tall bar stool at the kitchen counter and making notes on her tablet.

She was also covered with flour.

Quite liberally.

All over her brown shirt, black trousers and black canvas shoes. And hair. And glasses.

"Erm... Mom?"

"Yeah, I know. I tried to check the top shelf for flour. Yes, we had some. No, we don't have it anymore."

"Okay..." Rose coughed and strode across the kitchen to open the window. "What _are_ you doing?"

"Making a shopping list. Could you help me?"

"Sure. What do you need?"

"We'll be making a raspberry cake for aunt Jane. So..."

"Raspberries, obviously."

"Raspberries. Absolutely last moment for the fresh ones, so I want to make use of it. And bilberries."

"Whipping cream?"

"Yes, but if we can find double, it will be even better."

"Flour?"

"Ha, ha. Yes, a kilo pack, or maybe two, in case of another... accident. Ground almonds, too. We've run out of these."

"Sugar, eggs?"

"We have sugar, but someone ate all the eggs."

"Yeah, I think it was two someones. What goes on the top?"

"More cream. And raspberries. We'll save the prettiest ones for decoration."

Rose licked her lips.

"What kind of a cake is this?" she asked finally.

"Raspberry, like I said" Mom answered a bit distractedly. "Do we have vanilla extract in the cupboard? Brown bottle?"

Rose dragged a small step stool closer to the fridge and checked the shelves dedicated to spices and cake decoration. A few semi-dry bricks of icing, a jar of cinnamon sugar, another of vanilla (carefully labelled in Mom's hand), a box of bottles... Yep, vanilla extract.

"Empty."

"OK, so vanilla extract, too. And maybe, actually, some muscovado, too, because the jar seems rather empty after all."

As Rose pushed the spice containers back in place, a folded piece of paper fell from between the boxes. She caught it before it slid behind the fridge and opened to check.

"Mom? Why do you have a fifty quid coupon for cake decorating accessories hidden here?"

"A _what_?" Mom's head shot up immediately. "Where was it?"

"Like, here" Rose pointed out. "Between all the spices and the coloured sugar."

"Ddd... really. I've been looking for that stupid thing for, like, ages! They should print these on a poster so that people don't lose them."

"Yeah... Mom, it's valid until the fifteenth. I mean, next Friday. Can we use it today?"

Elizabeth Bennet looked not-so-much-down at her daughter and smiled.

"Sure. Let's go silly shopping. Maybe they will have at least part of what we _need_ , but if someone gives me fifty pounds to spend on absolutely idiotic things, I'm going to take them up on that."

"Where did you actually get this?" Rose hopped off the stool and checked the coupon again. "Herefordshire County Fair?"

"Aunt Jane entered me into a contest for a perfect apple pie. Yes, it was the first prize. No, I'm not going to ever repeat that recipe. It took me two days to put that thing together, including caramelizing the apples, preparing the orange peel and, well, _everything_. I avoided apples for the whole autumn last year, after that."

Rose nodded because there seemed to be nothing she could say to that.

"So? Where is that shop?"

"Just a few stops from here. Let me take my backpack and a few totes. Who knows what we will buy."

"Let's just make sure we _also_ buy the cake ingredients."

"Don't be so smart, miss."

"Also, you should probably change."

Mom sighed with a grin.

"Anything else?"

"You _do_ have bits of paper in your hair..."

#

A shiny, interesting-looking heap of accessories and sugary decorations on their kitchen table looked too big to be actually comfortably placed anywhere in the tiny kitchen, but they were determined. The slightly smaller heap that represented the actual ingredients for aunt Jane's cake was placed near the sink, to make sure they didn't manage to put away something that they would be needing in twenty minutes.

The shopping trip was a new experience.

#

The moment they stepped into the shop, Mom's eyes went wide and bright. She was most definitely in her element. That scraper, this spoon, that kind of icing sugar, that set of spices, sugar, yes, muscovado, two kinds! And everything had been going fine until they found out that a set of piping tips that Mom had seen in the display window had been placed on a shelf just beyond their reach. Definitely more for people of Dad-size than Mom-size.

And Mom just gave up on them, immediately.

"We could ask someone from the staff to help us?" Rose suggested uncertainly.

"No, I don't want to bother anyone."

 _Ah_.

"But they are working here, Mom. They are supposed to help people."

"It's not their fault I'm too short."

_Double ah. Definitely warrants a call to Mina._

And Mom marched steadily away from the shelf, looking for whatever else that attracted her attention.

Rose watched her go around the corner and sprinted towards the nearest assistant down the aisle.

"Could you please help me? I can't reach the top shelf, and..."

The lady smiled and looked up.

"The tips? What are you going to do with them, dearie?"

"Help my Mom decorate the cake. May I have them?"

The smile became a bit patronising.

Rose frowned.

_Ah, for the third time._

"Are you sure you want these? There are smaller sets, like this one" the woman showed her another box with just six tips.

"Actually, I really want that big one. We already have a small set, but I need _this_ " Rose pointed to the one just three inches away from her outstretched hand.

"Really?" the woman took the box of tips off the shelf and... still kept it away from Rose.

_Oh, she is rude._

"Aren't you a little old for kindergarten behaviour like this?"

Elizabeth Bennet sailed in, basket full, eyes blazing, cheeks blushing, all of her five feet and two inches tense and intent. The employee took a small step back.

"I'm... I'm sorry."

The box of tips dropped into Elizabeth's proffered basket and they turned towards the registers.

"Anything else we need?" she asked sighing. "I think we went a bit over the coupon's worth, but..." she shrugged. "I will use it at some point or another, and it's better than them _having_ that money already and us not using it. After all, the fact that they sold the coupon to the fair organisers means the shop already got paid."

"So it would have been silly _not_ to buy that stuff."

"Exactly. The best would be to find that the total is fifty and ten pence, or something equally annoying."

The total was fifty-one and fifty pence, which made them giggle like crazy for the whole way to the bus stop.

"And you know what?" Mom asked finally as they sat, the totes all around them.

"Hm?"

"The tips were quid forty..."

Rose didn't really know how to comment on that, so she just shrugged. Mom had a strange sense of humour, sometimes.

#

Baking itself went rather quickly. Everything else in the kitchen was as small as could be, still staying functional, but the huge, powerful whatever-it-was that Mom used to make the batter was... well, huge. And blue. And apparently did stuff almost by itself. Softened butter, sugar, vanilla sugar and yolks (plus a dash of salt) were turned into a perfectly smooth, creamy mass under the powerful beater of the mixer. Rose herself was ordered, with a hand mixer this time, to whip the whites "to soft peaks" - whatever they were—and she stood there, the whirling tool in her hand, watching Mom dancing across the kitchen. And singing.

The cover went over the mixing bowl and Mom was carefully spooning the flour and ground almonds in from the bowl placed on the scales. A bit of baking powder went in, too.

"Done" Mom removed the bowl and placed it next to the mixer, then swiftly replaced it with another one and poured the cream in. A new, clean whisk went into the socket and the mixer was started again. "The whites ready? OK, tolerable. Take that big spoon and add them carefully, without beating. Just fold them in. Doesn't have to be perfectly mixed together. And once you're done, wash the raspberries. Put all the nice big ones aside and we'll use them on the top. Now, where did I put that vanilla extract?"

#

The cake was an instant hit. Mom had to make sure everyone got a slice before the first kids came for seconds. Fortunately, the amount of whipped cream they didn't manage to put on the cake was also rather big, so Rose was tasked with spooning out the fruit salad (including raspberries) and the whipped cream on top to whoever wanted another serving of the cake. At the very last moment, she managed to get a piece of herself and it was definitely one of the best things she had ever tasted.

"May I?" Mom raised a spoon at her plate. "I don't want to eat a whole piece, but I need to make sure the sweetness was correct."

"It's perfect, Lizzy" aunt Jane hugged her shoulders. "Exactly what is needed for a summer party. I hate all these overblown, buttercream confections that seem to ooze of suspicious alcohol and need a cleaver to cut them because they are so tough."

"Well, we can try to repeat it for Mina's birthday, just using something else in place of raspberries. Or we can use frozen blackberries, hm? Mina? We can buy them this week and freeze, so we'll know they are nice and clean."

_Blackberries, mm._

####

After a week full of exploration of the gardens, shaded lanes, vegetable plots, orchards and stables—including two not very catastrophic meetings with Star—the weekend was disappointing. It started raining early in the morning and by the time everyone gathered for breakfast Mina was cranky, aunt Anne was irritable, aunt Catherine even cattier than normally and Dad was nowhere to be found. Aunt Georgiana had collected a pot of tea and some scones and escaped to her room, claiming a deadline on an article she was writing.

So, the only friendly face Mina saw at breakfast was Mrs Reynolds, and even she had to go to the kitchen to unpack fresh delivery of groceries that had just arrived after nine.

Despite a generous offering of interesting food, Mina was sitting with a bowl of cereal and watched it become more and more soggy. One by one the little pieces sank to the bottom, squishy with milk and completely unappealing. She forced herself to swallow another spoonful but her throat seemed to close by itself and she only managed to drink half a cup of tea before she felt that she would either hit someone or start crying.

Aunt Catherine was _commenting_. Basically, Mina's every move was a reason for a snort, an eyeroll, a pointed remark or an accusation.

"Really."

"Sit straighter."

"Don't hold your cup like this."

"Why aren't you eating?"

"How much sugar are you putting in this?"

"Children really shouldn't drink real tea. Chamomile is better."

"Don't you think that's enough milk?"

"You should eat a piece of toast instead of that cereal rubbish."

"Anne, wasn't there an article about the proper diet for growing girls in that last magazine?"

Mina bit her lip and sipped her tea quietly.

"I wonder where you got these abysmal table manners."

"Her manners are awful even away from the table" Anne mumbled and licked some jam from her wrist, where it had leaked from her overloaded piece of toast.

Mina closed her eyes and ate another spoon of cereal.

_With them around, I wonder Rose ever wanted to come back here._

"Rosie? is there anything you'll need for next week? Pencils, markers...? Notebooks?"

Dad looked a bit tired as he stood in the door, looking at her expectantly.

"I don't think so, but I suppose I should check. Didn't manage to really clean my desk yet. I could... I will clean it and check, and tell you?"

"Just make sure to do it before ten, hm? I need to go to Lambton, so I can pick whatever you need, but I must leave within an hour."

She gratefully pushed herself away from the table and run up to her room, leaving the half-eaten cereal with relief.

The desk was a mess, but she pulled the remaining drawers out and started to sort through them quickly, trying to identify whatever might have been missing.

Crayons, check.

Pencils... a lot, check.

A compass, OK.

Ballpoint pens, a bunch, check.

Coloured pencils... They look a bit worn out. Ask Dad.

Notepads, a lot. But no new ones. Everything at least partially used. Not good.

Rulers, all kinds and colours—did Rose collect them, or what?

Her phone buzzed.

_SUSAN_

"Hi. Cleaning my desk, you?"

"Um. Shopping in an hour or two with Mom and aunt Jane. Why are you cleaning the desk?"

"Dad asked me if I needed anything for school, so I'm taking inventory. I'm trying to guess how come I have rulers in every colour of the rainbow."

"I'm trying to guess why I have a pink plastic hedgehog on my desk, so..."

"You stick pencils in it. Between spikes."

"Ah. The rulers were a bet. Who can find more colours. I use mostly the blue one that has inches on one side and metric on the other."

"Good to know. Where do you keep new notepads?"

"I don't think I have any left. Ask Dad to just buy a lot, you'll need at least ten, two ruled and two blank, six squared. And ask him for a pad of graph paper, millimetre. Last year we were using that for maths. And at least one spiral bound, squared paper."

"OK. You can find yours..."

"Found them, no problem. Now, I have a question, but it's kind of weird."

"Everything is weird about us. So?"

"Is Mom, like, really sensitive about her height?"

Mina sighed.

"Yes. What happened?"

"She couldn't reach something in the shop and she refused to ask someone from the staff to help her."

"Ugh. Yes, that's normal. Sorry. Forgot to tell you, I'm kind of used to this. She... She was bullied at school for this, so she doesn't want to draw attention to that, like, ever. One day she told me that's why she sews most of her clothes herself. She hates shopping for trousers."

"Ah" Rose sighed. "OK. I see. Fine. Well, not fine. But. You know."

"Yeah. It sucks. That was what you wanted to ask?"

"Yep. How's Dad?"

"Seems fine. Aunt Catherine and Anne were nightmarish today, but that's probably because it's raining."

"No, they are rather terrible even when the weather is perfect. Don't blame their behaviour on poor, innocent climate."

"How did you survive all your life with them? I was ready to throw an apple at Anne today."

"Probably got used to them. Imagine living with grandma in the same house. My guess is, the outcome would be similar. I've learnt not to listen too closely."

They sat in silence for a moment.

"OK, I need to finish this and tell Dad what to buy."

Rose snickered.

"And I have to take a shower and get myself mentally ready for _shopping_ with aunt Jane and Mom. I hope it won't be _very_ long."

"Keep your fingers crossed for me. A rainy day and I'm stuck with these two inside."

"OK. I have to run, Mom's calling for me."

"Yeah. Thanks."

####

The shop was big, furnished with soft seats and displayed the advertisements of their main offer prominently on all the available wall surface. The wall surface that was not taken by hooks on which hangers with thousands of bras were suspended. Or panties. Or swimsuits.

Aunt Jane and Mom seemed completely unfazed by the amount of lacy, ribbon-covered and in general frilly objects in one place. Rose wanted to disappear into the floor. The first time she bought a bra - with aunt Georgiana's kind assistance—it was black, sturdy and rather annoyingly itchy. She tried not to repeat the experience and never actually started wearing Mina's bras. It felt... weird.

As she tried not to look too closely at the assorted lingerie, Mom pulled her towards the next section, which blessedly was much more restrained in the decoration department.

"The school expects you to be equipped with at least one sports bra this year. Probably they noticed how girls started... jiggling, and there were notes sent to the parents during vacation regarding the, well. Situation."

"When we were at school, there were no such luxuries. I wore two normal bras sometimes, to make sure that I could control the level of... free movement" aunt Jane giggled. "Girls even wore theirs over t-shirts."

"Fortunately, your generation will not have to resort to such weird solutions. You can pick a sports bra and use it during PE or any kind of exercise. This nice lady" Mom pointed to the shop assistant "will give us some ideas, hm?"

Rose nodded slowly and breathed in, out, in.

"I want something for running. And for volleyball. So that I can jump..." she trailed off and the seller smiled widely.

"And I suppose you don't normally wear any bra?"

"Well, during the summer, no, well, mostly the swimsuit..."

"Sure. Come in, darling. Do you want your mother to stay?"

She looked at Mom beseechingly.

"I'll sit here" Elizabeth said and moved a small chair next to the fitting room. "Please bring something that will not have any kind of decoration. We both have skin that breaks when we think too deeply about it. And, if you could, two plain, no frill bras for everyday. Soft ones."

#

The whole experience was much less humiliating than she had expected. The lady seller was nice, bringing in bra after bra after bra, as Rose shyly showed Mom and aunt Jane the outcomes and they accepted or rejected the results.

"I think it should be enough for the fall at least" Mom sighed. "But remembering my 'growth spurt' at this age, I'd say we'll be revisiting soon after New Year."

"Yeah, that was the year when you were finally bigger than me in some direction."

"You felt so betrayed by your own body that you tried stealing my bras and stuffing them with tissues."

"Mom?"

"She did! She totally did! She said she is older and so she should have bigger... assets."

"Boobs" aunt Jane said and rolled her eyes. "I said 'boobs' at the time."

"I was trying to make you sound more sophisticated, you know?"

"I'm qualified to be a primary school teacher, not secondary English literature. I can say 'boobs' if I want to."

"Everyone says 'boobs'" Rose provided helpfully.

"But why on the street?" Mom winced just a bit.

"Because we are standing in front of a bra shop? Whoever comes near should be prepared to hear the word 'boob'."

"Jane!"

"You have to loosen up, Lizzy. You didn't even have a look at the newest collection, and there was that pretty silvery one..."

"And it had lace on the inside. Thank you, no."

"You can't just walk around in only your black and white set. That's... a crime!"

"Watch me."

"I am. That's why I'm saying you should have bought something for yourself, too."

Mom shot aunt Jane A Look and rolled her eyes. Rose wasn't very sure what that was supposed to be about, but she sneaked a glance in her own bag—five. FIVE, Two of the most comfortable, wonderful sports bras she could ever imagine—actually, she couldn't ever imagine _that_ before. She had to get more before she went back home. Finally, she would have something for the competitions! Riding a horse with one of these on would be much, much easier.

Probably even wearing one of the other three would have been an improvement over that old scratchy one she had.

She silently sent a thought of apology to Mina, who would have to torture herself for another month and a half with Rose's only bra. She decided to make it up to her sister, _somehow_.

"I need to split, Janey. The last job just came asking for yet another piece of code, something specialised and requiring me to make research into their hardware. They got some big client asking for an additional function of the system and promised twice the normal money if I manage to deliver it before the end of September. Apparently, they promised the customer they already have it done, just not yet implemented, and now they have to scramble to get this ready. Mina, go with aunt Jane, I'll take your shopping" Mom tugged the bag from Rose's fingers. "You two can buy some of the school stuff, hm? I'd say we have a budget for a new backpack and gym bag, so be on a lookout for them. And for anything for school—pencils, crayons, ink, whatever you can find."

"New trainers for PE?" Rose ventured a suggestion.

"That too?" Mom raised an eyebrow. "Grew out of them?"

"No, but they are ratty" she had seen the state of the PE trainers Mina had left in her room, and although they could have been used a few times more, it seemed like a good idea to replace them with something more adequate.

"Oh, well. Trainers too, Jane. Just make sure you get some good stuff so that they don't fall apart after two weeks."

#

The moment they were left alone, Jane's smile dropped.

"How are you doing, Rose?" she asked quietly.

"Well enough. But..."

"Yeah. You know you can call me if it gets overwhelming?"

"I will. I promise."

"Do you need me to... I don't know. Explain anything?"

Rose grimaced.

"Why the masquerade? I mean, why the camp, and the tools, and..."

"The tools were kind of independent. I mean, I saw them at the shop and just _had_ to buy them for you. And then I saw the ad for the camp, and it seemed like a blessing—if I didn't manage to convince Lizzy or William, the one who went would just spend the summer at a nice place. But when they both agreed..." she sighed. "I hoped you two would find each other."

"That we definitely did" Rose smiled finally.

"Now, tell me _everything_."

"So, on the first day..."

####

The first day at school was weird. The kids looked at her askance and the questions about "her" missing braid were making the most of her conversations for the day. The inauguration of the year was blessedly short, but the next few hours, during which she had to exercise her face memory in order to greet everyone correctly, were a challenge. Still, she managed to smile when needed and write down the lessons plan and everything that was planned for September and October. A trip here, an outing there, a folk song contest—with the finale in October, so she had a chance to make it without leaving Rose to finish it, that would be nice... She could pick something that she already knew to cut down on preparation. A maths contest, a science project about electricity, and, finally, a small sports event for several local schools.

First day and she was already a bit tired.

And the comments about her hair never stopped.

"They just allowed you to cut it?"

Marika, always sitting behind Rose.

"They had nothing to say" she whispered back. "Some idiot stuck a wad of chewing gum in it when I was at the camp, so I just had to cut it. Dad doesn't mind, so..." she shrugged.

"Looks cool."

"And takes much shorter to wash" she rolled her eyes expressively. "No more brushing for hours."

"Practical."

"Darcy! Herman! Please stop talking!"

At least Marika had been nice about it. Some other comments were more in the area of "tomboy", "are you a guy now?" or, actually, "nobody is going to like you now, you look _weird_ ".

Apparently, it wasn't only Mina's own schoolmates who were, to quote Mom, small-minded. Everywhere the same. Fortunately, at least the girls from her homeroom were accepting the change with the same kind of neutral-to-enthusiastic reaction as Marika expressed.

#

On the bus everyone was more or less zoned out, so she luckily didn't have to interact with anyone, tucked away in the front corner seat, just behind the driver. Her walks during the previous week—and calls with Rose—gave her quite a good understanding of the way back home from the Kympton church stop and she already knew what to expect, so she only checked the navigation app from time to time to reassure herself that she was correct.

She saw the silhouette of the church tower appearing from behind the curve in the road and quickly checked her phone yet again. Kympton. Finally. Now she only had to pick the right lane from there...

The bus stopped, amongst croaks and a groan of some metal elements, and a few kids were getting out, so Mina quickly joined them and hopped down the last step, looking around. There it was, the first road to the left from the church, this was the one that led straight up to the mansion. Relief flooded her as the other students turned the other way, throwing a short "See ya, Darcy" her way.

_OK. Fine. I'm good. I'll be home in ten minutes. Wow. I survived... Wonder how Rose's doing..._

#

The walk up to the house was different today, in a way. She had been to school, finally and properly "played" Rose in front of a bigger audience and nobody had questioned her at all. Missing braid was easily explained away, of course, and everyone had been a bit distracted after vacation, so, with some new students being more interesting than her, Mina felt she had done rather well. She now only had to keep it up for seven more weeks.

Another difference were the fields. She had seen them from the distance during her walks around the house, but now she could check them up close. The funny little walls that wouldn't really stop anyone divided them—and sometimes bordered the road, too—and it looked like a huge patchwork quilt sewn together with thick ribbon marking the boundaries between pieces.

Also, there were sheep. A lot of sheep.

On the pieces of the field patchwork that were actually grassy, small spots of white could be seen gathering and then moving as a kind of pixellated cloud, stopping here and there, sometimes all at once, sometimes smaller groups inside the big one. There was no order or rule to the way they moved—at least not one she could see. They were fascinating.

Looking at them up close, as she saw them on her first day "home" was completely different. Then they seemed to be single, separated animals. From the distance now she could only see them as elements of a group—and the behaviour of single animal would always look different from that of a whole, organised group.

####

Rose overslept. Just a bit, but enough to make her nervous. At least the uniform had been prepared the day before, making her more than prepared for the day. Still, sitting at the table in just her t-shirt and pyjama pants, she tried to force some cereal down her throat and failed.

"Nervous?"

Mom's cool hand on her neck made her close her eyes.

"Yeah."

"No worries. You'll survive, just like all these years. And I'll pick you up after and we'll go do a tiny bit of shopping, in case they tell you to buy anything that we missed, or you need any books for reading assignments. And we have enough time—I have a free afternoon—so maybe we could finally go to Greenwich and see the meridian?"

Rose straightened and smiled.

"Sure. And yes, nervous. Just a bit. Not sure why, but..." she shrugged.

"It happens. Also, school is a basically stressful situation, so there is nothing weird about being nervous. Now, two more spoonfuls, brush your teeth and get dressed. We should be leaving in twenty."

#

Everything went surprisingly smoothly. Rose avoided Annie, as per Mina's warning, and took the seat her sister suggested should be "hers" - third row, by the door—took notes of the class schedule, extra lessons and potentially interesting clubs, smiled at everyone agreeably and picked up the form for Mom to sign regarding hearing screening.

Everything, that is, until they left school and Mom wasn't there. However, there was a text message waiting for Rose, saying that the traffic was a disaster and asking her to wait in front of the school. It wasn't as if Rose had anywhere interesting to go—the area around the school seemed pretty devoid of entertainment—but sitting on the stairs attracted attention. Of the unasked-for type.

"Bennet, what are you doing here? Waiting for your father to find you?"

_Wow. And Mina doesn't beat them up daily?_

"Leave her alone, Christine. Don't you know that Mina is perfectly happy with just her perfect mother?"

"Did her perfect mother make her out of yarn?"

Giggles.

"No, she made her in a 3D printer. She is _a programmer_ , you know."

"But she didn't install the right software because Bennet isn't answering."

"Apparently she can't _program_ all that well!"

Rose sighed and kept her focus on her phone.

_Sometimes I really hope they will send us to a boarding school together. At least we'd have each other because this_ _**sucks** _ _._

#

When harried, slightly dishevelled Elizabeth entered the courtyard twenty minutes later, Rose was no longer wondering why Mina had three detentions on her record in the last year. she was rather curious why her sister didn't beat someone up enough to warrant a suspension.

"Mina! I'm so sorry, kitten, I got stuck on the bus. Everything all right?"

Rose chewed her cheek for a moment.

"Nah. Some kids just being bratty. I think I have to get used to being around stupid people again after the camp."

Mom sighed.

"All right, if you say so. But if someone..."

"No, just... in general. People are stupid."

"Not all of them" Mom snorted. "But yes, a lot. Come on. Let's go see the Prime Meridian. No idea how we managed _not_ to see it until now, it's basically next door."

Rose stood up and dusted herself off.

"We live here. If we lived in, like, Paris, we'd probably never see the Versailles. Or go up on the Eiffel Tower."

Mom nodded slowly.

"Yeah, I suppose so. At least I _do_ take you shopping in Camden, just like all the tourists do. Which reminds me, we need to find you some new t-shirts. Half of what you brought back from the camp need to be retired immediately."

"Clothes shopping? Where?"

"Why, Camden, obviously" Mom smirked. "Friday."

####

It was hopeless.

The map on the wall seemed reasonable as she tried to locate the station she was on at the moment and the way it was supposed to relate to the Northern line. The little dots and connectors indicating—supposedly—the stations with more than one line were, of course, all in wrong places, at least from the point of view of what she needed to do.

She blinked, fighting back tears.

_Eff... fourteen and crying like a lost baby. Come on, Darcy. You can find it. Go home before your stomach becomes so loud it attracts wild animals._

Back to the black line of Northern. Down south, what it connects to. Overground, no. Victoria, no. Central, no...

 _Wait a moment_.

She wasn't very sure how she managed to find herself at the Royal Oak station, but she would be damned if she called Mina—or Mom—for help. And it seemed she might have to spend some additional time on changing the trains, but...

"Can I help you?"

The man's voice surprised her out of her deep concentration. She looked cautiously over her shoulder, but fortunately, it was just a station employee, apparently worried by the way she was perusing the map.

One of the problems of London. Too many strangers. Lambton might not be the village it once was, but with the area she usually visited—shops, school, park, the mall—most of the people she saw, she saw daily. She knew the bus drivers, the doormen, the shopkeepers and even the ice-cream girls in the park. In London, the possibility of meeting someone she knew was near zero.

"Miss? Do you need help?"

She smiled quickly.

"No, thank you. I have to find the way back myself. It's... like a dare."

He frowned a bit, looking down at her.

"A dare?"

"M... Me mates, we have made a bet, who gets to Camden first. I know it's a bit stupid, but..." she felt herself slip into slightly more Derby accent—let him take her for a country bumpkin, and leave her alone...

"Aaah. A bet. I see. Well, then, I hope you find your way back there soon. I wouldn't interfere with an honourable quest!"

He smiled. And turned back to his booth. She managed to breathe fully at last.

_Thank GOD._

Back to the map. What was that?

_Central. I need to get to Central now and just change to Northern..._

She sighed. She really preferred terrain maps. This... this colourful travesty was no map. It was a multicoloured _lie_. Well. At least now she could get to the Northern. The next challenge would be to catch the right train, going in the correct direction and making sure it goes to the right stations.

_I really hope this is the biggest challenge London can have for me. Because if not, Mom will have to be much_ _**less** _ _observant than Mina says she is... Also, I need a very good explanation for being home an hour late._

#

Mom looked not the tiniest bit worried when Rose dumped her backpack in the corridor forty minutes later.

"Took the scenic route, hm?"

Rose cringed.

"Kind of... Got preoccupied, and, then, well..."

"Wrong station?"

"Big time."

"Next time, call. It's not like I don't know where you are, but it would be good to hear a timely explanation of what my daughter is doing on..." she had a look at her laptop "Royal Oak? How did you manage to get _there_?"

"I was listening to music, and then there were a lot of people going one way, and I couldn't get out..."

Mom sighed and placed a plate in the microwave.

"The curse of short... people. And, in your case, of being fourteen and, obviously, not important enough for people to listen to. How many stations before you managed to get out?"

Rose washed her hands and sat at the table, still a bit apprehensive.

"Four. And I almost lost my headphones, because the cable caught on someone's backpack..."

"I really wish people would pay more attention. Apparently, until you are tall and loud, nobody cares. Now, let's make sure these pretty muscles stay as they are, so you'd better eat this" she pushed a bowl of chilli towards Rose. "And there is a slice of Jane's cake still waiting for you in the fridge. And then you can tell me how was your first full day at school. Was everyone absolutely ghastly? Or are there some actual human beings this year?"

Rose dug into the chilli and chewed as she thought quickly.

"Mr Wendell is trying to put together the school orchestra. Mrs James says over her dead body because she needs all the passably musical students in the choir. Do I have to join the choir? It didn't really sound that good if she has to, you know, press-gang people into it..."

"No, you don't. But it will be some additional credit, so think about it."

"And Mrs Parker said she'll be holding auditions for Much Ado About Nothing and asked if I wanted to participate. Aaand I'm not sure."

_Because if I do get in, Mina will be in real trouble, come Christmas._

"If you don't want to play, you can probably volunteer as a stagehand. Or help with the costumes. I can help, obviously, if there is anything bigger needed, but I think if she sticks to the basics, you shouldn't have much of a problem sewing a straight line. I could help you with cutting if you wanted."

Rose nodded slowly.

"That would actually depend on who gets in, you know" she picked another spoonful of chilli.

"Sure. Wouldn't want to be stuck sewing pretty dresses for girls you'd rather not speak to, hm?"

_I have no idea how she can just come and say this kind of stuff openly. Do all mothers just read their kids' thoughts? And do they just say it all out loud?_

"Yeah, kind of. And some of the girls already act like they are Beatrice and Hero, even before the auditions."

"Beatrice was always my favourite Shakespeare character" Mom remarked absently. "I remember watching the film when it finally made its way to the TV and I was so happy I managed to record the whole thing. I had to sacrifice part of my collection of Muppet Show recordings, but it was _so_ worth it."

Rose swallowed the last bit of chilli and looked at her mother quizzically.

"Recorded?"

"Oh, dear, child of the digital age. Yes, recorded. We used to have a VHS recorder, connected to the TV, and we could record cassettes. Whatever was on the telly."

"Couldn't you, like, buy them?"

"Yes, and also rent. But then in the shops, the choice wasn't always the best. And not everything was sold as VHS, actually. Or maybe it didn't make its way to the local video rental. So, you know, catching it finally and having, all for myself, was a treat. Even though that poor, over-recorded tape was barely alive. I think we watched it with Jane at least fifty times."

Rose licked the spoon slowly.

"Refill, or are you going to just eat the spoon?"

"Nah, I'm good. So, who played Beatrice then?"

"Aah. Emma Thompson. I _loved_ her... You know what? Any homework for tomorrow?"

Rose frowned.

"No, nothing."

"Any shopping we'd have to run out for? Missing art supplies, autumn leaves to be collected, walnut to be shelled in perfect halves, rainbow-dyed tissue paper?"

"N-nooo?"

"Very well. I should have shown this one to you long ago. Come on. My room. I'll fire up the bigger screen and connect the speakers and we can catch up on some Shakespearian goodness. Emma Thompson, Kenneth Branagh, Denzel Washington... Keanu... Reeves... Yep, connected. Here's the DVD. And Michael Keaton, to top it all off."

Rose stood still in the door.

"You don't have to work or anything...?" she ventured, cautiously.

Elizabeth Bennet smiled.

"I definitely do. But I can do it when you're asleep, and I can't watch the film with you when you're asleep, can I?"

####

"I got lost in the tube today."

"Wow. How did _that_ happen?"

"People blocked me from getting off the train, and then I missed like two more stations..."

"Geez. But, yeah, happened to me, too. Kind of got used to it, now I stand by the door at least a station earlier. Mom's working?"

"Yes, she has these big headphones on and she is working on something for some very annoying company. But, we watched a film, so I suppose it would be good if you caught up, too. Just in case. 'Much Ado about Nothing'. You can ask aunt Georgiana if she can help you find it."

"OK, sure. How was the school?"

Rose blew a raspberry.

"That bad?"

"These people are morons."

"Oh, Lord. What happened?"

"Are they really _that_ bothered by Mom? I mean, in twenty minutes I heard _everything—_ from the fact that she's single, to a comment on her being a programmer, to even some idiotic things about her crafts. Point one, how do they all know that crap? Point two, how do you deal with people who make fun of you because Mom crochets?"

"Mom volunteered during some money drives and donated pieces for auctions. So people come asking if she is like, full-time crafter, and she said 'no, I'm a programmer' and everyone was like 'what?' and then kids started making fun of me that Mom couldn't find a guy so she knitted me in her spare time..."

"How do you even still stay at that school? Isn't there anything closer to home?"

"It was supposed to be a good one, with Italian starting early and everything. They have good ratings, you know. Just... everyone cares for the "academic result" and not how the students treat each other. Try to ignore them, if you can. They are just too dumb to understand someone who doesn't have an office job. Their mothers are like bankers or secretaries or whatever, and nobody except for Mom works from home."

"Morons."

"Yep-p."

"And you? Everyone OK?"

"More or less. But the number of people apparently intimately interested in the state of your hair was incredible. Seems that in the wilderness of Derbyshire having short hair means you're a boy."

"Well. Probably, kind of."

"Countryside, awful."

"Well, not that the big city is any better."

"Yep, not really."

"OK, Mom told me to be in bed in twenty, so I have to go brush my teeth."

"I'm already in bed, but yeah, I still have to be up earlier than you."

"Check-in on Friday?"

"Definitely."

####

Rose was sitting at her desk, gazing miserably at the Italian homework she was supposed to complete for the next day. The words felt familiar—after all, "alors" and "allora" were quite close to each other—but not enough. She thought she could do it, but...

She sighed and switched the exercise book for something she could reliably do—the science assignment. The solar system was fortunately covered by both the textbook and Wikipedia, so she happily filled in the names of the planets, the number of the moons and other small details, like the length of the year, proximity to Sun and size. It was time-consuming, but it was not undoable.

Maths, too. Apparently, Mina's class was a tad bit slower than hers for some reason. Hopefully, Mina would catch up soon with her own homework.

She sighed and thumbed her mobile quietly.

_Problems with it assignment. Need help._

Sent

_Just write me the subject and give me half an hour._

Received

_OK. "Descrivi le tue vacanze"_

Sent

_I'm trying to fill in exercises for fr, I'll send you a photo in a moment to check for errors. And then I'll send you the text._

Received

She looked at the exercise book miserably for a few more minutes, but nothing came up. No magical way of gaining the same expertise in Italian as she already held with French. No solution but to wait for Mina to call her back.

_[photo_ ]_

Received

_Write this. It's simple and probably will get a B or C, but should be fine for now._

Received.

She happily spent another ten minutes carefully copying Mina's short essay to her book.

_[photo_ ]_

Received

_Check the exercises and send back corrections._

Received.

Ah. That was something she could finally bite into.

####

"Dear _God_ that was nasty!"

"Mina?" Rose hissed. "What's wrong?! It's not Friday yet."

"Everything! I mean, blergh, ough, aaa!"

"Sis, you're not making _any_ sense."

She heard Mina sigh and blow a raspberry.

"Dad had been _remotely_ hit on by no less than eight women in the last three days. I mean, I was asked for his number, or given their number to pass on to him, or asked whether he would be picking me after school. Including three teachers. I mean, _really_."

"Yeah, really. What did he do this time? Drop you off wearing that three-piece suit that makes half of the female population of Lambton swoon? Because I bet it wasn't yet cold enough to warrant the black coat, and that one attracts idiots like nothing else."

"He..." Mina sighed again. "No, no suit. Actually, on Tuesday he just wore black denims and a t-shirt."

Rose whistled.

"Black t-shirt?"

"Yeah. Kind of.. stretchy."

"I wonder if he's doing it on purpose. I mean, one of the mothers actually told me once that 'for a forty-year-old' Dad is, like, _fit_. I mean, I'm not supposed to even think about it and these... women, are all kind of pushing their views on me—on us."

"Yep, and it was totally disgusting. Also, stupid. I think aunt Lydia is more subtle when it comes to guys. They were speaking to me like I was six or something. "Ask your Daddy", "Please pass this along to your Daddy", blah blah. Really."

"Which ones were these?"

"What do you mean?"

"Which teachers and which mothers. I wonder if there are new ones in the fanclub, or they are just counting on the new school year being the chance to try again."

Mina huffed.

"No idea. Didn't see whose mothers these were, and only one teacher was someone I could identify. Physics."

"God, she never learns. That would be the third time."

"Do you..." Mina's voice trembled. "Do you think he would ever..."

Rose swallowed hard.

"He never brought anyone home" she started. "I mean, having aunt Catherine and aunt Anne there is enough of a problem for any normal human being. Imagine what would have happened if he had actually _found_ someone he likes. These two would have gone ballistic."

"Sometimes I wonder why they are still here. They have their own money, don't they? And they are kind of useless, Anne doesn't even work! Aunt Georgi writes her articles and stuff, and she travels to see the instruments and plays the piano a lot, and she helps with household stuff. Aunt Anne just plays on her phone or reads rubbish magazines."

"No idea. They'd lived with us since I remember. Always, like, there."

"M-hm. Another topic to talk to aunt Georgiana about. I mean, if they stay, there is no chance Mom will even try to come here...!"

####

"It is high time to be preparing for Christmas, William."

Aunt Catherine's voice woke up everyone at the breakfast table.

"Pardon?"

Dad's kindly questioning tone betrayed his absent-mindedness.

"Christmas, William. It is coming soon and you will have to ensure that it's as grand as possible this year."

"Not sure why we should do it any differently than last year."

Mina's heart constricted. Whatever the Christmas in Pemberley was, _she_ wouldn't be here to witness it. By that time she would be switched back with Rose and in London for the season...

Aunt Catherine frowned at him and poked Anne's shoulder.

"Christmas weddings are all the rage this year."

_I really hope she's not suggesting what I think she's suggesting. Over my dead body._

"That's nice" Dad said, still reading the paper intently. "If you say so, I suppose that's right."

"Nothing like a thick layer of ice on roads to make getting to the church more interesting" aunt Georgiana reached for another piece of toast.

"And a concerto of sneezes during the mass" Mina added wickedly.

"And having to get a white coat sewn, and a few underskirts for the dress."

"And being forced to wear boots under the dress."

"And having only hothouse flowers."

"And risking sleet or snow."

"And being stuck in the ballroom and no way to go outside."

"And the guests staying for a week due to snowfall..."

With every sentence, Anne was becoming more and more flushed. Finally, the redness on her cheeks bled into her forehead and neck, making for interestingly blotched skin, pale and red mottled.

"Would you two stop!?"

Mina was actually awed. That was the first time Anne had shown an actual _interest_ in something besides her nails and making snide remarks about Mina's (Rose's) choice of clothes.

Dad slowly folded his paper and looked down the table quizzically.

"What is this all about?" he asked calmly.

"They want to spoil it all!" Anne explained furiously. "They want to... I want to be happy on my wedding day!"

"I hope you will be" Dad smiled into his coffee. "Rose? Ready? I'll drop you off before I have to meet Jonathan, and I need to talk to you about some changes to be done around here."

Mina swallowed the last bit of her toast and wiped the crumbs off.

"I just need to fetch my backpack..."

"Run. I'll be in the car in three."

Gratefully, she escaped the oppressive atmosphere and took two steps at a time to her room. Throwing on her uniform jacket and tie was a matter of a minute, and the backpack was already waiting ready by the door.

By the time she pulled on her black shoes, Dad was in the car, looking at the steering wheel, deep in thought.

_His hair looks... weird. Did he forget to brush it? Also, he is in that black t-shirt again, makes him look like a student. Definitely not a serious landowner and manager of a fifty-employee company._

"I need your input on some changes I need to make around the house" he said without preamble, starting the car and rolling up the drive. "And I need you to seriously consider this."

"Dad?"

He looked around and turned into the main road.

"I need you to tell me what kind of... of space, you would need in the house. If you could have anything, your perfect place, what would you need. And, in general, what would we need, as a family."

 _OK, that's new. What the... Will have to call Rose today, before going back home_.

"What do you mean?" she asked finally, as he sat in silence, apparently waiting for her reaction.

"If you could pick anything for the house, what would you choose? I'd say, for myself—a fireplace, with the possibility to hang a pot over it to make mulled wine. And a library, proper library with a good desk and good light. And bigger windows, ones that don't creak. So? Apart from your bedroom, is there anything you may want?"

Mina blinked.

"I thought we were not allowed to change anything major in the house..."

"Rosie, I..." he sighed. "I want to build us a new house. On the grounds, not far from the mansion, but we can't live in that old place anymore. It's leaky, cold, damp, dark and annoyingly medieval in the infrastructure area. So, I need your input. What do you want the planners to include? They sent me some propositions, what other people include—I'll check what Mrs Reynolds thinks about the kitchen—and I already listed some specific things, like a proper music room for Georgi, or bathroom floor heating, but I need your honest input. Imagine doing everything you do everyday, but having the proper place for it. Or for special projects. Or, once you start making garden plans—if you do them as actual miniatures, you will need workshop and storage space, right?"

_Garden plans? ROSE!_

She nodded, trying not to betray the surprise.

"I will... I'll think about it, OK?"

He pulled to a stop in front of the school.

"Go. And... Rose?"

"Yeah?"

"Don't tell anyone, OK? I want this to be a surprise for your aunts."

"A surprise, right. Definitely will be. Bye!"

_Damn. Call Rose, call Rose..._

"Ah, Rosie?"

She turned back and he was leaning on his side of the car, raking his hair back and checking the phone.

"Pack for the weekend when you get back, hm? We're leaving with first light."

 _CALL ROSE_.

"Sure. See you in the evening!"

_Trip? Trip where? Aaa!_

####

_"I'm afraid we're having an... issue" the teacher started and William sighed internally. If there was one thing that he could be sure of it was that Rose would never be participating in anything suspicious._

_The feeling was reinforced when the screen flickered on and some pieces of internet chats were displayed._

_"The children are using social network websites and, since they are over thirteen, are actively participating in... social life, quite legally. Still, they seem to be lacking the full understanding of how to proceed in certain situations and are publishing things on Facebook and other sites in very unsafe fashion."_

_One of the mothers raised her hand slightly._

_"Anika doesn't have a Facebook account" she pointed out. "Do you need me here?"_

_The teacher deftly clicked a few keys._

_"She does, in fact" the screen was now showing the online profile of one of Rose's classmates. "I'm afraid you have to talk to your daughter, Mrs Frey."_

_"Oh."_

_**Yes, oh. I wonder how many kids have the accounts despite having promised their parents they'd never create them.** _

_**I'll have to talk to Rose about this, definitely.** _

_"Now, as most of the class has the accounts, and I've managed to not only identify them but also see their pictures, their locations and comment on their posts—while not being their approved contact—it seems we will need a class on cybersecurity to be provided quite soon. I don't believe we can force the children to remove the profiles, as the lure of easy communication and entertainment is too strong, but we can try to teach them about the consequences of their actions and how to prevent risky behaviour. I will ask all of you now to sign this sheet, allowing the kids to attend the additional lessons—provided by the county, at no cost—and if everything goes right, we'll be conducting them in two weeks' time. In the meanwhile, please speak to your kids about maybe not posting each and every photo as public and stopping marking their location with 'check-in' on Facebook. This is a very risky behaviour that may lead to them being exposed to... unwanted attention. There are people that specialise in trawling social networks for vulnerable kids or just simply convenient occasions. I'm not saying this to scare you, but to warn you. All kinds of security may be easily applied, from parental control over the phones to making sure that the Facebook account is properly secured, including blocking strangers from seeing anything on your kid's profile."_

_William sighed. Definitely, a talk to Rose was warranted. He had decided she would not get a social network account until she turned fifteen and he definitely planned to keep it that way, but obviously, she would be coming under pressure of her peers, who were already in possession of such._

_"My son never lets his phone out of his sight. And I'm rather sure I wouldn't be able to install the whatever you say on it."_

_"I understand that problem" the teacher tried to sound conciliatory. "Still, if you could get Andrew signed up for that additional class, it can help him. Also, the county will be setting up classes for parents who feel less... computer-literate than their children and would like to learn a bit about potential solutions for cases like this."_

_There were several more parents who raised similar doubts, but William avoided joining in. He was quite sure he would be able to discuss the problem with Rose with full honesty and she would not try to conceal something like this from him._

_It wasn't that he was almost sure that Facebook already had an account of black-haired, brown-eyed girl born in October 2003. Not at all. And he definitely wasn't afraid that the moment they both come online someone would make a connection between the two of them. Absolutely._

_The teacher was talking about kids being nasty to each other on some chat or messenger. Not his area, fortunately. The most complicated medium Rose was using for communication were texts. And he planned to keep it that way at least until he found some way to explain to her what she could find once she would start connecting with people on the net._

####

_Pick up, pick up, pick up._

"Susan?" Rose answered finally. "Give me a sec, Mom is watching something, I don't want to talk... Now. What's going on?"

"Friday evening check-in?" Mina provided weakly.

"OK. So? How's the week?"

"Weird, going on creepy."

"Geez, girl. Details."

"Aunt Catherine is crazy."

"Not news."

"She wants Anne to marry Dad."

"Also not news."

"Anne wants to marry Dad..."

"Also not exactly a surprise."

"This Christmas."

Rose choked for a moment.

"This _what?!_ "

"This Christmas. She is making wedding plans. Rose, she's scaring me. Aunt Catherine started talking about Christmas preparation at breakfast and Dad was kind of absent but answering, and aunt Anne said that Christmas weddings are fashionable, and Dad, like, agreed."

Rose made a weird noise.

"Agreed to _what_?" she hissed.

"He just kind of generally agreed that they are. And then aunt Georgiana and I started kind of like listing what can go wrong with a Christmas wedding, ice on the roads and everyone coughing and stuff, and she started screaming at us that we're trying to spoil it for her and she wants to be happy on her wedding day."

"Gosh, she is laying it on thicker than ever. And Dad?"

"He just said very seriously that he hopes she will be and drank his coffee. Like nothing happened. Rose..."

"Wait. Give me a moment to think."

She bit her lip, waiting for Rose to react.

"Dad didn't at any time say 'our wedding' or anything like this?"

"No. He just agreed to the general stuff, like, that Christmas weddings are nice."

"And he didn't promise her anything, I don't know, marriage-like?"

"Not to my understanding."

"OK. That means it's just Anne being too imaginative. Or desperate."

"Yeah, but what if she finally manages..."

"She won't. Listen to me. She won't. He won't—she had been at it for as long as I remember and she never ever succeeded."

"But..."

"Don't worry. Just don't worry and watch them. Let me know the moment _he_ makes some move that looks like..."

"He's building a new house."

"He is _WHAT_?"

"He asked me today, when he was dropping me at school. He said that it's a surprise for everyone but he wants to build a new house, somewhere outside of the main garden, so we can live in normally build modern thing instead of trying to make do with the main mansion and not being able to fix anything. So he wants to build this new one and wants my input—your input—on, like, what to add. Please please Rose think about it. I don't have any idea! I mean, he said he wants to add a proper fireplace, and a library, and music room, and bathroom floor heating and something in the kitchen, but he needs to check with Mrs R. And he wants me to contribute. And also he wants me not to tell anyone else..."

"So it's not something that he's planning with Anne?"

"No, no way."

"And he's not asking for her input...?"

"Well, he told me not to mention it to anyone, but..."

"But if he told her, you'd know, because she's unable to keep her mouth shut."

Mina shrugged, which obviously Rose couldn't see, but...

"Yeah, I suppose."

"So it's OK. It's not something for her, it's just him being annoyed with the rules of what he can modernize inside."

"I suppose so, yes."

"So tell him to add a workshop—he will need it and I will need it, you know—and a place to store all sports gear, and a walk-in closet, because why not. And I'll need a place, like in the attic, for a big table for my garden mock-ups, and..."

"What's that about gardens? Dad said something about that, too..."

"Oh. Right. I want to study landscape architecture, garden design."

"And you didn't think that would be a valid thing to tell your only sister?"

"We had other stuff to discuss! I didn't think this would come up in two months, never mind two weeks!"

Mina sighed.

"OK, so, attic space for mini gardens, walk-in closet, shed for sports stuff and the workshop. What else?"

Rose made a 'thinking' sound.

"Actually, if we think they could, like, get back together, Mom should have her own space, too."

"Well, she doesn't really have enough room at the flat, yeah."

"So she would need like a second workshop, and a place to install the sewing machine, and lights and storage and stuff?"

"Yeah. She showed me once that superb storage cupboard she'd want to have one day if she had enough room for it."

"So we should add that, too. It's not like it will be wasted space, I can use it for the modelling, too, if this doesn't work. Or I'll convince Dad to set up a gym for us, or something. Tell him you want to have the place for the gardens close to his workshop just in case something has to be made, or fixed, so that you don't have to carry it all the way up and down. Because the attic will be there anyway, right? So if it turns out this getting them back together thing works, one of us gets the attic and the other gets the workshop. And if it doesn't, I get the workshop."

Mina sighed.

"I hope it does, but anyway. Workshop for the gardens, added. Anything else?"

"Space for the container garden. I know we have that whole huge garden, but if there is a terrace or something like this, make sure they add some place for pots and containers."

"Well, I'll add terrace as such, first."

"That will be a good start, yeah."

"So, anything else?"

Rose hummed.

"A place for movies? With a screen and a projector installed in the ceiling?"

"You're a genius, sis."

"Absolutely."

####

"Mina! Wake up! We have to leave in, like, twenty minutes!"

She sat up in her bed, completely disoriented.

"Mom...?"

"Kitty is a _saint_. Or a _goddess_ , not sure right now. She found a cinema that is still screening Beauty and the Beast and she got us all tickets! Grandma is watching the twins, so you, me, Kitty and Ted are going, but you have to be ready in ten minutes and downstairs in twenty for this to work. This is the last one in the whole city, so there will be next to no ads, I suppose. Come on. I've got scrambled eggs ready and cocoa ready."

Apparently, there were some downsides to having a mother who doesn't work in office hours. Like, her being up at an obnoxiously early hour in the morning on Saturday and organising entertainment. Rose sighed and slowly crawled out of her bed.

After a week full of rather stressful situations (slightly alleviated by a few calls with Mina and the feeling that, in case of a larger mess, she had aunt Jane as a backup) she was really looking forward to sleeping in. On the other hand, she also had managed to miss the musical hit when it was being shown in Lambton—for measly three weeks—so it seemed like a good idea to actually be ready when aunt Kitty and uncle Ted would arrive.

She quickly put together a set of clothes and wandered into the kitchen, where Mom was just finishing her tea and Rose's plate of eggs was steaming on the counter.

"Eat up. After the film, we need to swing by grandma's to pick up some fabric scraps she found. I want to start a Christmas project early this year, to make sure I'm done on time for some of the holiday fairs. That fifty quit coupon kind of gave me the incentive to enter this year, too, so I do need something _special_. I'm thinking about a huge eight-sided quilt in poinsettia colours, hm? On a black background... or maybe white... OK. Done? Perfect. Go brush your teeth and take a jacket, it's a bit nippy outside. Getting kind of cold early this year."

In a whirlwind of action, they had their jackets on, backpacks ready (Mom's, as usual, contained at least two empty totes) and trainers laced and they were hurrying down the stairs to where aunt Kitty was waiting for them by her car, looking impatiently at her mobile.

"Love you, Kitty, with undying adoration. I _mean_ it. We managed to miss _every_ weekend when it was..."

"Yeah, yeah. Us too, so, well, let's get on with it. Come on, Mina. Hop in and buckle in, we'll be late!"

#

The film was magical. Literally. It left Rose with her mouth open, despite certain disappointment at getting only a tiny glimpse of the after-curse part of their lives. Prince was obviously handsome, but much better without the make-up, definitely.

"Well, they did try to remake the yellow dress" Mom was saying as they walked down the stairs from the small cinema "but obviously, with the original being _drawn_ and not realistic, they had to make certain adjustments. You can't just sew exactly what is drawn, because the original animators didn't really pay attention to it being, well, realistic. Otherwise, I'd say it was pretty much spot on. Other than the autotune used from time to time, but apparently in this day and age..." she shrugged.

Aunt Kitty rolled her eyes.

"I should have known better than to take a _seamstress_ to a costume film. What else, Mrs Expert?"

"Well, the guys were rather nicely done, you know. And the 'Gaston' song rather adequately transformed..."

"The _Prince_ , Lizzy. The Prince!"

"Blonde" Mom shrugged. "Too bland for me. No offence intended, Ted."

Uncle Ted raked his hand through his wheat-golden curls.

"None taken, Liz. Mina? How did you like it? I remember you were rather miffed when it turned out they stopped playing it before you had time..."

Rose went a bit cold inside for a moment.

_God. Mina wanted to see it. And now she won't have a chance, because we just saw the very very last one..._

"Mina?"

She shrugged the immobility away.

"Very nice. I mean, I'd like to see more of the Prince at the end, but, you know. The Beast was nicely done. Kind of more... serious than the one in the cartoon."

"Yeah, at least they did make him an actual grown-up" Mom mumbled.

"That was what I never liked about the animated film" aunt Kitty frowned. "If you count it all properly, it turns out that the witch was cursing an eleven-year-old. Seriously, what kind of lesson does this leave? That a pre-teen should be punished, together with his servants, because he didn't let a strange woman in?"

Rose managed to stop herself from rolling her eyes. Yep, Mom and aunt Kitty, dissecting the lessons learnt from Disney movies.

"Well, they probably didn't want to make him ten years older than Belle. Which, if he was eighteen, and cursed for ten, and her more or less eighteen-ish now..."

"They could have made her twenty. Eight years is not that bad."

The moment aunt Kitty said _that_ , she stopped and paled slightly.

Mom, however, blushed furiously.

_Uh-oh._

"Yes, _Catherine_ , eight years is not so bad" Mom's voice trembled slightly. "Can we please go and have some lunch now? My treat."

#

The bag of fabric that grandma had somehow dug up in the attic is fascinating. Apparently, not all of it can be used, judging from Mom's mutterings, but there is some brilliantly yellow cotton there that Mom tries against Rose's face and deems it good enough for a new blouse. A roll of long strips is undone and checked for any unwanted fauna, but it seemed to have been well-protected against clothing moths, as the mothballs smell wafted up from it immediately upon opening.

"Some of these are actual scraps, Mama" Mom said slowly. "But I'll take the bigger pieces off your hands. Where was it?"

Grandma frowned and looked at aunt Lydia, who was watching them with something resembling annoyance.

"Back of the attic. Behind the old trunks, stashed into a corner. No idea who put it there."

Mom sniffed.

"Considering the mothballs seem to be naphthalene, I'd say grandma Bennet. And the patterns on some of these definitely say 'fifties'."

"Well, take it all. Nobody will use them here, but I won't give Luiza Lucas the satisfaction of pointing out I've thrown away something recyclable. She's been on our case ever since we got rid of one of the broken kitchen chairs. She's been harping about that chair for three months now, as if there was something that we could have done once two legs had snapped."

Mom rolled the strips together again and packed it all into her totes.

"No, even I couldn't offer you a solution for two broken chair legs. Unless we had a workshop where I could turn two new ones for you."

"So, even your skills have some limits, sister?"

Aunt Lydia didn't speak much, for once, but it seemed she was trying to find an opening for... something.

"Yep. No way I'm picking up woodworking. It requires way more space than I can allocate for crafts" she smiled at Lydia kindly. "Mama, I will drop the useless ones in the recycling bin, nobody should complain then, and I'll take the rest. Do you need anything done from these?"

Grandma seemed to be considering the question.

"I need you to focus on your work, Lizzy."

Grandpa's voice intruded on their short-lived semi-peace.

"Oh, Thomas! Really! Lizzy doesn't need to work all the time! She can make something pretty for me, too!"

_I will never ever understand them. Grandma doesn't like Mom, but somehow she is happy when Mom makes nice things. Grandpa supposedly likes Mom a lot, but he is bothered anytime someone mentions her doing anything but work... How come she is even talking to them anymore?_

"Papa, I need to take time off work once in a while. It's not like I can be sustainably creative in one field for more than five hours in a row. So I can sew something during the day when I need a break. What do you need, Mama?"

Grandma looked at the bundle of fabric being pushed into the tote.

"It would be nice to have new chair covers for the dining room, Lizzy. Some nice, pastel colour. Pistachio maybe? The kids managed to stomp all over the current ones and I need replacements for when these are in the wash."

Mom simply smiled and nodded.

"Six square chair cushions in pistachio then. Will see what I have. I can even make them in two colours, so you can have a different set if you turn them upside down. Maybe ice blue on the reverse?"

_Why is she doing this? Why... I don't get grown-ups._

####

The trip was something else. For one, Dad turned out to actually own a pair of distressed jeans. And a t-shirt with some obscure heavy metal band logo and picture on it. Aunt Catherine was glaring so hard at that picture over breakfast that Mina was slightly surprised it didn't peel off the fabric.

After Dad came back from the last-minute school meeting about, of all things, cyber security, she managed to wheedle out of him what kind of clothes she was supposed to pack for the trip. Outdoorsy but not heavy hiking. Having considered the options, she packed Rose's chequered flannel shirt, denim shorts, change of underwear, toiletries and pyjamas, assuming everything else she'd be wearing on Saturday would be still good enough on Sunday.

They took a rather early breakfast before leaving, but still aunt Catherine somehow managed to be up early enough to nag them during the meal, reminding Dad of the required visit to their relatives in Matlock (wherever that was) and impending social obligations, including the Harvest Fair in Lambton, to which Dad was supposed to contribute some of the Pemberley produce.

The moment they secured their seatbelts and Dad put on his sunglasses she could feel the atmosphere changing.

"Music?" he asked, starting the car.

"Nah. But..." she took a deep breath. "I suppose we can discuss that new house thing now. Nobody will hear us, right?"

He nodded, smiling.

"So, did you consider what you may want to include? All basic stuff will, of course, be on the list, like bedrooms with proper heating, bathrooms—shared, every two rooms together, the kitchen—and Mrs R is very much an opponent of an open plan kitchen, so we won't be going that way, a garage, a laundry room and storage closets everywhere we can fit them in."

"A workroom for my models" she said slowly. "And of course a place for the workshop. Instead of keeping it in that shed. And we could put them next to each other, you know, in case I need something to be made for the mock-ups."

"That's... reasonable, yes. I'd say we should consider putting them in the basement. It won't be an actual basement though."

She frowned and made a questioning sound.

"The house will be built on a small slope. The front will be on the higher side, so the ground floor will be accessible from, well, the ground. And then the back will have the basement _also_ accessible from ground level..."

"Because the ground is lower there, I see. But" she tried to make a shape in the air with her hands "if the slope is very steep, won't it be hard to get the car out of there?"

"No, actually it's rather flat, so we'll make the car go a bit further than just 'behind the house', and then back in. Will make it easier in case of snow, and we can make the basement level also much larger than the main house itself, and put a terrace over the additional part. Or even cover it with dirt and make it a small bit of lawn just directly outside the house. Or just make a bit of an oversized porch there, and then the lawn. If you want to add the workroom there, too, then the basement would probably be twice the size of the ground floor itself."

"We'd have to invest in some ventilation system because cars will be stinking it up. And the workshop anyway needs proper vents."

"My safety-conscious girl. Yes, vents definitely. Anything else?"

"A storage for sports stuff? Now I have everything in my room, so anytime we think about using it, I have to run all the way up from the garden."

"In the garage, I suppose. Makes sense."

"And could we make a place for..." she dithered for a moment. "I mean, I'd like to have a bit of a garden, you know, where I could do stuff by myself. Just not in the garden itself, but something closer to the house."

"You want it for flowers, or what?"

"Just thinking in general. Maybe flowers, maybe herbs. Or, I don't know. Tomatoes. Whatever. Just need to consider space to put them."

"Ah, so you want containers? Big ones, or maybe a raised plot somewhere close to the house? I think I saw some ideas in some garden design glossy, we could ask Jonathan to prepare a spot for them and make sure they have good sun and not too much wind. You know very well that it's not the best place to count on much success with the plants."

"I know, but, well. I wanted to try at least. I always wanted to try to grow something more than just a sad beanstalk for a science project."

"Sure. Why not. And there are some varieties that actually like our weather, so we can search for them and you can choose what is interesting... Anything else? Inside the house is what is more important for me now."

Mina frowned, thinking about her discussion with Rose.

"Ah... Could we have, like, a place to watch movies? A pull-down screen and a video projector? I don't mean we'd have to, like, buy them immediately, but to make sure we have the right place for them and some spots for the speakers..."

"I was considering a flatscreen, actually" he said and tapped the wheel. "But a screen and a projector sound nice, too. And it makes it more like a proper cinema, hm?"

"We could watch all the movies that we missed! And set up the speakers all around, to make the sound better!"

"We definitely could. You could have friends over and watch all the mind-rotting stuff that your old Dad is not going to touch with a ten-foot pole. You could have friends over, period. As it is now..."

"Yeah. So, I would be able to, like, have social life...?" she smirked.

"Definitely more of one than you can manage now, kitten. Sorry for that, but it will still take at least a year to get it all ready. I hope if they can break ground in November, and work on some parts during the winter, we could have it painted during the summer and then have enough time to let everything air and move the furniture before next school year starts. What do you think about this?"

"I think it will be a very nice surprise for everyone" she smiled.

"Well, by the time it's built it won't be much of a surprise for anyone. The big trucks carrying materials will be a dead giveaway!"

#

The cable cars of the Heights of Abraham were supposedly the first of that kind in the whole Britain, but she very much hoped they had been upgraded since they were built. Whatever their actual age, the view from the little carriage was fascinating and she spent the whole ride glued to one of the windows, trying to take photos of the trees they were travelling over.

Once at the top of the hill, there were too many things to see at once. Even the playground, although targeted at slightly younger children, seemed tempting. Finally, they decided to simply go by the order of numbers on the small area map and started with a small snack at the café. Next steps led them to the historical exhibition of the area, which didn't seem all that interesting to Mina, and then the fossil display which was rather fascinating. Seeing an actual ichthyosaur fossil wasn't something she had ever done before, so her appreciation of that specific exhibit was rather vocal, to Dad's amusement.

The Rock Shop, however, was the place where she suddenly noticed him looking rather... maybe not lost, but somewhat inattentive. As she searched through trays and bowls of colourful stones, he just stood there, watching her with a slight frown.

"Dad, look. Agate slices. May I have one? The blue one? I could hang it in my window and it would be like a stained glass?"

He looked at the piece, slightly surprised.

"Sure... But don't you want more than one? Are there different colours of them?"

She glanced at the display.

"Brown, blue, pink, green and purple. But I like the blue ones the best."

"Pick three or four blues then. I think I can afford the expense" he smiled. "How will you hang them?"

She pursed her lips.

"I could glue a piece of wire to them and then string them from the top of the win... ah, I can't attach anything there, can I?"

"No, you are not supposed to. But you can buy them anyway and then use them in the new house, you know? I will put some hooks at the top of the window just for them."

As she turned back to the tray with the agate slices and carefully picked the largest and thinnest pieces, she saw Dad making his way towards the section with actual jewellery. She peeked over the small wall and saw him viewing the pendants on display. Finally, he pointed out one shaped like a teardrop and the seller pulled another from a drawer behind the counter, finally bagging two.

_Huh. Probably for Anne and aunt Georgiana._

"Did you pick what you need?"

She jumped just a bit, but luckily had the blue stones ready, so he took them and paid, adding a small cardboard box and a bag of random rounded stones from one of the trays. When she cocked an eyebrow at him, he shrugged and smiled silently.

The rest of the day was equally fascinating as they walked from one place to another, including the caverns and their light show, the view tower and the exhibit of the working day in the lead mine. By the time they noticed their hunger, most of the place was slowly closing down, so they only managed to catch a quick bite in the Tavern before it was time to go back down to the valley and to their car.

"We could go home" Dad said hesitantly. "It's only twenty minutes after all. But I was thinking we could go to one more place. But it's just..."

"OK."

"You don't even know what I wanted to say!"

"But I'm OK with it. Yes. Whatever it is, let's see it."

#

"A _bowling alley_? Like in all the American movies?"

Dad smiled at her and paid for their admission.

"I used to bowl with uncle Charles when we were at the university, so I hope I'm still good enough to teach you. Now, first we change our shoes..."

#

_His daughter was dead to the world in her seat as he quietly and slowly drove back towards home. There was no reason to make it a sleepover, considering his not-so-well-calculated plans didn't actually take them further from home than twenty miles or so. Still, it was after eleven when he picked her up and made her march from the car to the door. She was groggy and grumbled softly, but still surprised him with a hug and a quiet "that was fun, Dad"._

_Once upstairs and assured that she was safely in bed, he closed his door carefully and opened the package that seemed to burn its way through his pocket all the afternoon. Two beautiful Blue John teardrops in silver danced on their chains. He placed them both in their respective boxes, putting one in his desk drawer, on top on some other gifts awaiting Rose's birthday and the other found its home at the top shelf of his closet, behind the handmade blue jumper he hadn't worn for thirteen years._

_Tomorrow they'd go for a small walk and see the future building site. Rose had some nice ideas, so maybe seeing the place would be an even better way to spend their Sunday than going for another trip._

####

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And so, what do you think? :) How are they doing?  
> How am _I_ doing?


	8. Lands on her own and still

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yet another week for our dear girls.  
> Some rather important conversations.  
> Progress?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, part of this was written when I had fever. I checked it, and reread and rechecked, but I'm still not 100% I didn't make some crazy error.  
> Let me know if you notice something off.
> 
> Also, I have no idea what correspondence from teachers to parents looks like in UK, so I applied a hefty amount of poetic licence here :)

Dad was looking rather intently at the small piece of ground marked provisionally with thin poles.

"Up there, on the other side, would be the entrance. Where we are standing would be the drive and the garage door. Over the garage, the terrace. All the infrastructure stuff would be in the basement, as much as we can push it, safety-wise. Jonathan will be making sure we don't built something that could star in a horror of the 'main power just under the hot water pipe' genre."

Mina snorted. Dad in loose khakis and a ratty uni t-shirt seemed like a completely different guy than the everyday Dad in reasonable suits - or even the dropping-off-at-school Dad in black denim (with optional leather jacket). He even moved differently, his gestures becoming less restrained, more fluid, and his accent slipping from time to time into what Rose presented to her as "Derby accent, if Dad wants to play 'simple local boy'".

He crouched on the grass and spread a piece of paper, pressing the corners with small stones.

"Jonathan sent me a first proposal today morning, including your suggestions I've texted him yesterday. Rooms for the two of us, and Georgiana, would be at the front, overlooking the trees. This way any cars parking and starting won't be under _our_ windows. I'm pencilling in eight rooms in total, just to take care of occasional guests or sleepovers. A room for Mrs Reynolds at the ground floor - you know she hates stairs these days. Kitchen on the north-east side, with side door, just to make it easier for deliveries. Large open area through the rest of the ground floor, with a corner for informal library, and one room to the side for my office, so I can keep the records there. The 'back' wall of the house will be full south, so we can make the best use of whatever passes as sunlight in our lovely county. And full windows on the west side, including the study."

"So... how big will that be, like, in total?"

He gestured towards the poles.

"This is the basic outline of the house walls themselves. When you divide it into eight-ish, you'll get the size of the room... Your bedroom will be, more or less, twice the size of your current room. Remember, at the mansion a large portion of floor space is eaten by the walls being three feet thick in some places. This will be much more modern construction. Actually, _very_ modern. I have this plan I pitched to Charles - uncle Charles - to make it self-powered. Well, as much as we can, around here. The roof will be fully covered with solar panels, and part of the south wall too. This way during sunny season we'll be running part of the house electricity off the sun directly. We'll put together several isolation layers to ensure the house doesn't lose heat and we'll add the fireplace to be an alternative source of heat. So even if we go very unecological and burn some precious wood there, we'll reclaim the heat from it and add it to the water heating system, supplementing the electrical heating. And from the chimney, we can try catching the heat there, too."

"So, you're making a big honking science project?"

"In a way."

"You are making a big, honking science project with your best friend, in your back yard."

"Yeah" he smirked at her. "Problem?"

She shrugged, biting her lip.

"Not at all. Unless you decide to scrap it at the end of the semester and throw the ant farm out..."

"Rose!"

"Couldn't resist" she sat next to him on the grass and leaned on his shoulder. "This will be... good."

"I certainly hope so. Jonathan had already made it his pet project for this year" he hugged her shoulders. "He liked your ideas and he will incorporate space for the vents into the airducts around the house. They are now calculating the needed ceiling supports to bear the pianoforte for Georgiana. Two rooms on one side will be slightly bigger - hers, and one of the guest rooms. In case someone comes with their kids, or whatever. And to make it symmetrical, of course. On the opposite side, the rooms will have bigger balconies. This way the whole house will look slightly wonky, but it will be regular."

"Can I have the one with the balcony? I could put the containers there, too."

"Well, actually" he cocked an eyebrow at her. "I considered taking that one myself. I could put a lounge chair there and smoke without anyone noticing me."

"You don't smoke."

"I could start!"

"Dad!"

"Rose!"

"You'd be giving me _bad example_."

"The greatest threat on Earth. But we'll see which one you like best later. We'll negotiate the rooms once Jonathan makes all the calculations. He was actually proposing making the upper floor slightly smaller and making a wrap-around balcony for all rooms. We'll see what he sends tomorrow."

"So, what else did he include?"

Dad pulled his glasses from where he stuck them in the neckline of his t-shirt.

"He wrote... ah, laundry room and so on in the basement, yes, just like we agreed. There is space for three cars - just in case, and guests would be parking under the overhang of the terrace, and the workshops, and storage for stuff like winter clothes, blah, blah, additional electric supply for the workshop, closet for outdoor gear, water connection for garden purposes, very nice... Oh, and water reclamation system for the toilets, how nice of him to include that detail."

"And what is that?" she grimaced, looking at the technical draft covered with notes.

"Redirection of so called 'grey water' to flush the loos" he explained, pushing up his glasses. "Like water from the washing machine. Basically, it's usable, just not for human consumption. So we can use it to flush the toilets, this way conserving the actual drinkable water. I asked Jonathan to include as many possible small solutions as he can find, and he apparently was inspired. Charles will be sending his input and calculations too. We'll have to make the walls a bit sturdier than normally, to accommodate for the panels, which are a bit heavier than standard roofing materials."

"Dad?" she trailed off hesitantly.

"Rosie? Something more?"

"I... Could I have a window seat? A bay window? We could put some storage space under it..."

"Why not. I could put one in the study, too, actually. Stretching with a book in a window..." he smiled slightly. "Sounds nice. And doesn't require a change of structure, just setting something to sit on in front of the window and two bookcases on the sides to make for the walls."

"We should draw it, to make sure you can fit in that seat. I need a foot less than you, you know."

"Yes, and the bookcases have to be usable, once they are used to bracket the window... Let me raise the point to Jonathan then, he will have a look at how to arrange this."

_I hope you like window seats, Rose._

"So... what do you think?" he looked up, towards the trees that would be shadowing the main entrance.

"I think it will be perfect" she whispered, pressing closer to him. "But, Dad... who else knows?"

"Just you, Jonathan and his main partner, and Charles. I want this well under way before anyone else learns. Can you keep the secret?"

"Even from aunt Catherine?"

" _Especially_ from aunt Catherine."

_Ah._

"I..." he sighed. "I have plans. I don't know if this will work, but I want this new house to be a chance to... reboot our lives, you could say. I'll change my working hours a bit. Spend more time at home, even this winter already. But starting from next summer, I want to make use of whatever time is left before you leave for university. If you get accepted to that school I suggested, you will be so terribly far away, and..." he hugged her closer. "I had a taste of that this summer. I will miss you, Rosie."

_Oh, Mina, just don't babble now. Don't babble._

"I'll miss you too, Dad" she managed to choke out. "But I will be home for holidays - every major thing, you know."

"I know, but I'd rather have you focus on your studies and graduate on time than risk you missing something due to flying to and fro between here and Netherlands."

_Netherlands?! I'll kill Rose..._

"But it's not this year, and not the next" she said quickly. "So don't worry. And yes, it will be good to spend more time with you. Even if it will be just stealing _your_ window seat and reading my books when you wrestle with project accounting or whatever."

"Yeah. It will be nice to have you there."

_God, I hope Rose can follow through on this one._

_I wonder what he would say if I asked about some other potential inhabitants of that house..._

"Dad, I meant..."

His phone buzzed, making them both jump.

"It's Charles. Give me a sec, Rosie, and we can talk. Charles? Yes. We're just on the site. Yes, Rose is with me. Yep. Yep. New model? What is the price... Ouch. How... Ten percent is fine. Yeah. Full southern exposure, no trees, no shade, nothing between us and the pond. Yes. Definitely. Will you be coming for Rose's birthday? Sure. Weekend after, that will be perfect. Imp?" he asked, pulling the phone away for a moment. "Jane and Charles would be coming on the thirteenth, fine for you?"

She nodded quickly. At last, aunt Jane!

"Yes, she says yes. Come, I'll ask Mrs Reynolds to make that pecan pie she experimented with last year. I can even negotiate for the recipe for Jane. Well, yes. Sure. We can make a survey of the site together then. And I'll need your help with that other thing..." he bit his lip. "Yes. Make it comfortable, but reasonable on the money side. Well, if I could choose freely, I'd say make it the very end of Cornwall, but it won't work. Unless you spin it like this, then, yes. Maybe. Not sure right now. No, just, think about it. Yeah, you too. Cheers."

He looked at the phone for a moment and shook his head.

"So, what was it that you wanted to say?"

She frowned and hesitated.

"No, nothing important. Just... I hope this will work, you know? I really want to see that house... be."

"You will, don't worry. You will get tired of it by the time we're done. I will drag you through every home improvement store from here to Glasgow and we'll search for perfect tiles, your ideal sink, tub and other pieces."

"So... you won't be just choosing it for the whole house at once?"

"Nope. I think it will be the best if you and Georgiana share the bathroom, so you can pick for the both of you, and I will pick for mine, and the other two will be in generic whites, to make it simple."

_So the other two are supposed to be for nobody specific, hmm. Noted!_

"OK. I think I can live with that. As long as I get that balcony thing in my room."

"I can give you the balcony thing _and_ the terrace will yours to arrange. You can treat it as your first project. We can even ask Jonathan to set up a base for a rock garden, maybe install a fake spring? You could play around with that and plant stuff there even before the house itself is finished."

She nodded slowly.

"That... that sounds... Like, wow. You'd trust me with this? You'd have to look at it all the time from the ground floor."

"If you make it too ugly, we can always cover it with dirt, plant some grass over it and make it an anonymous random mini-hill. But an actual garden is a continuous project, so if one year it doesn't work, you always have a chance to improve it with every season."

"Well, yes. Definitely. And if something dies in the containers, they can be moved away. Or I could plant something else over it."

"Exactly. It's not like we expect to feed ourselves off them. If you need your experimental garden, you will have it."

"Thanks, Dad" she honestly hugged him in Rose's name.

"Let's hope it all works out. Now, home. We need to wash and I suppose there may be lunch waiting for us. And then we can shut ourselves in the study and try drawing the rooms, hm?"

_I love him._

"Sure" she smiled. "That will be perfect."

_Six weeks left. I don't want to leave._

_But I do miss Mom. And Rose._

_I hope they will let us talk when they switch us back._

"Rose? Earth to Rose? You coming? Mrs R made tortillas."

 

 

_####_

 

_From: p.robertson@lnd_academy.edu.uk_

_To: elizabeth.bennet@ebennet.co.uk_

_Subject: Mid-September evaluation_

 

_Dear Ms Bennet,_

 

_Please be informed that the outcome of the general test of your daughter's competency in mathematics is 99%. Her overall progress however seems uneven, and her results during the Italian lessons point to underperforming._

_At the same time her behaviour had changed compared to last year. Still, I must ask you to discuss the recent events with her, especially regarding the tone of voice used in discussion with her classmates and the type of remarks she applies._

_I am fully understanding of the unstable familial situation of you and your daughter, but I implore you to apply better discipline nonetheless._

_If her behaviour doesn't change by the end of the month, I will set up a meeting so that we can discuss corrective actions to be undertaken._

 

_Regards_

 

_Patricia Robertson_

 

####

 

_From: martins@lambtonsecondary.edu.uk_

_To: w.darcy@darcybuilding.com_

_Subject: Rose's progress in September_

 

_Dear Mr Darcy,_

 

_Please be notified that Rose's current results are in general positive (exact numbers attached), but she continues to be rather uneven both in French and mathematics. I am allowing a certain after-vacation period for everyone to get their feet under them, so we'll have the tests at the end of October to allow Rose, and everyone else, to catch up._

_Since Rose had had several small-scale altercations with other students, we've put their parents on notice and she should no longer be experiencing difficulties from that direction. I am very sorry that this had occurred and we are watching the situation carefully._

_Please notify me if Rose reports any further problems regarding her classmates' behaviour._

 

_Regards_

 

_Anthony Martins_

 

####

 

_From: a.tilde@lnd_academy.edu.uk_

_To: elizabeth.bennet@ebennet.co.uk_

_Subject: Mathematics contest_

 

_Dear Ms Bennet,_

 

_I am pleased to inform you of your daughter's continued good performance in mathematics. Please do consider signing her up for the contest, as per attached invitation. In order to prepare for the contest, Mina would be invited for additional classes, every Tuesday and Thursday. Participation and achievement in the contest will provide additional credit for Mina, which may count for any future education choices._

 

_Kind Regards_

 

_Anna Tilde_

 

####

 

_From: yang@lambtonsecondary.edu.uk_

_To: w.darcy@darcybuilding.com_

_Subject: Rose's progress in September_

 

_Dear Mr Darcy,_

 

_Please confirm your approval for Rose Darcy's submission to the Folk Song contest at the school._

_Attached form needs to be filled in and signed by a parent._

 

_Regards_

 

_Lucy Yang_

 

 

####

 

The main merit of Mondays was that there was no French lesson on the plan.

Mina felt she did quite well in all other subjects - with maybe slight slip here and there in maths, but she was catching up - but mastering a new language in a matter of a few days was simply impossible, despite the fact that she had adequate fluency with its direct neighbour. She and Rose dealt with homework rather easily - a few texts and a photo here and there resolved any issue, be it a written assignment or an exercise to be filled in. Fortunately the next French test was planned for the end of October, which delayed the moment when she would actually have to damage Rose's grades. For the time being she managed to avoid giving an answer in class by the simple expedient of "still writing her notes" and smiling in an apologetic manner.

The French teacher was actually rather fond of Rose, apparently, so she let the avoidance slide, satisfied with reasonable although not overwhelmingly excellent essays and correct exercises.

P.E. continued to be fun, as the year started with general revolution and everyone, no matter which sport they preferred, were now learning table tennis and most of them were as new to the discipline as Mina. The downside of table tennis was, however, that she had much smaller arm range than anyone in the same class. Still, at least she didn't have to prove herself in basketball, which was what she had been quietly afraid of. And table tennis was just like volleyball, after all. Just with paddles and one to one, but a net, a ball and the general idea was... close enough.

Monday morning ride to school with aunt Georgiana was also rather fun, as they took her tiny red car and drove to Lambton with the roof folded down, letting the rushing air mess up their hair and smiling at each other silently. Only once they slowed down due the traffic in the middle of the town Mina was hit with a reminder of the atmosphere at the breakfast table and grimaced suddenly.

"What's wrong, Rosie?"

They were stuck on red light, but she still had over twenty minutes to the first lesson.

"I just..." she trailed off. "Why do they live with us?" she blurted out. "If I wasn't that hungry in the morning, I would just be skipping breakfast completely!"

Aunt G gripped the steering wheel harder. She didn't even have to ask which "they" Mina was talking about.

"I wonder sometimes" she was watching the car in front of them intently. "I think... William feels guilty of something. Not sure what, but aunt Catherine is holding something over him. She..."

"Is she blackmailing him?"

"What? No! It's more like he knows he owes her something. But I'm not sure what it is. They've been here so long I kind of got used to them. When they came, I was still at school, coming home only on weekends. And they didn't live with us then."

"So you were in a boarding school?" Mina asked curiously, forgetting Aunt Catherine for a moment.

"Yes, a bit to the north, they had a wonderful music program. Girl only, blah blah blah, very elite and so on. I mostly cared for the music program anyway."

"So, they showed up, but didn't live at Pemberley?"

"Oh, neither did we. There were repairs being done to the water mains, the house was unusable for half a year. And anyway William was just starting the company, he felt living in Lambton would give him better base of operations. Also, we had no network connection here, and the telecoms didn't want to undertake the challenge of dragging their cables so far outside only for us. Anne and aunt Catherine arrived to Lambton and immediately started spending inordinate amount of time with us. Mostly with your Dad. Until you were born."

They were already in front of the school, with fifteen minutes to spare, and Mina tried, very hard.

"Aunt G? What was my mother like? What happened to her?"

"Rose, why... why are you suddenly so interested in her?"

"At the camp, there were kids from all kinds of families, but there was also a girl whose parents got the divorce when she wasn't there. And this got me thinking about _our_ family. What happened there?"

Georgiana sighed.

"A lot. And I mean it. I was home mostly on weekends, and for summer holiday, but..." she glanced at the car clock. "You have to go now, Rose. We can talk in the afternoon."

 

#

 

They didn't. The afternoon was rainy and annoying and whenever the two of them managed to find a quiet corner, someone happened along, looking for one of them. After third attempt they gave up, leaving it only with Georgiana's whispered "Your mother is a lovely, sweet woman and I liked her a lot. I think it was Aunt Catherine's fault she left."

It was good to finally have an object for her hatred, and such a promising one at that.

Mina sat in Rose's room, in the middle of the floor, trying to imagine whatever wasn't _here_ but could potentially be useful for Rose at some point. There was no harm in asking Dad to include all that stuff in the design. He would be much less happy if Rose started to raising these points once they were switched back.

"More lights" she said slowly aloud. "Not only one point in the middle of the room and the desk lamp. And more power outlets, to connect everything instead of having all these cords. At least it will be Rose who will be choosing the tiles and stuff for herself, so I don't have to worry about making some choices she wouldn't like..."

She swallowed a sob.

She really wanted to see the new house one day. To sleep the night in the spacious room built just for her, and to have a wash in the bathroom decorated with the tiles she picked. To share the bathroom with Rose, to meet every day when brushing teeth, to bicker about the shower and to see themselves together in the mirror.

Maybe vacation? Once parents would know they met, they surely wouldn't keep them apart, at least not during summer? If Mom didn't want to come here, she could send her on a train - or, if she was afraid, with aunt Jane... Mina sighed. It was all still just guessing. Anything could happen between middle of September and next July. Even between middle of September and end of October.

She had her short-term goal, as the grown-ups called it. She had to get to the end of next month, make the big reveal and try to spend at least a few hours with Rose. She felt like suddenly, at some point during the camp, they became indispensable for each other. She simply needed Rose close by. They had lived almost in each other's pocket for almost seven weeks, and now, three weeks apart seemed already like a year.

 

 

####

 

The amount of scraps in Mom's room was astounding. Hand-sized diamond cuts, sorted in columns according to the background colour, lashed together with old, fraying ribbons, stacked against each other on Mom's bed. Unsorted bigger and smaller pieces, in various shapes and hues, all over the floor and rest of the bed. Mom was sitting cross-legged on her computer chair, looking at the sea of fabric and biting her lip.

"Hi, Mina" she said, not looking up. "There is dinner in the microwave. Just turn it on for three minutes."

"M-hm" she looked at her parent questioningly. "What's all this?"

"I tried to bring order to the chaos" Mom said slowly. "But it seems the task is bigger than me."

Rose made three steps to the microwave. and set it for three minutes, then stepped back in.

"Can I help?" she offered uncertainly. "I mean, is there anything I can do that doesn't require asking you at every step?"

Mom started shaking her head, but stilled.

"You can start by removing all blues and pale pinks. I will mostly need all shades of dark red and dark green. Some small accents from others, for shading. And black for the background. But definitely full pastel pieces can go back to the storage."

"Sure. Blues, pinks, yellows, stuff like that?"

"Anything that is pale, actually. Greens and washed reds too, won't need them."

Rose knelt and started going through the nearest little hill of fabric when the oven pinged.

"Eat and then you can come and help me."

 

#

 

"Mom?" Rose tied a flat knot on another package of colour-coordinated pinks. "If you had, like, a million pounds, and had to build a house, what would it be? What would you put in it?"

"A million pounds?" Mom asked, smiling. "I'd have a huge kitchen. With proper light and everything. A big vent over the pots, a big proper oven. A bread oven, separately, just because I could. All the cabinets to store things. Double sized fridge, with an ice-cube maker."

"Wouldn't you want a workshop?"

Mom nodded slowly.

"A big table. Like, eight by eight feet. So I could put even the biggest bedspread on it and align everything properly. This project will be hard to put together here, for example. I could use a table like that for it."

"But you do it on the computer?"

"Yes, because I have no choice. And it's just an outline. I can't really scan all the pieces and use them to build the picture, so I have to use just the general colour and pick the right patches carefully later on, to make sure they actually match. It would be much more comfortable if I just had the right surface to do this. Four tables covered with something I could push pins in."

"Why four? You said one big table earlier."

"Yes, but I'm too short to work comfortably on one big table. I'd never be able to reach the middle. But if I had four tables, each four feet on the side, I could pull them apart, start the middle correctly, then push them together and add the rest of the pieces. And making the surface something that holds the pins would help making sure the fabric stays in place. I'd paint guidelines on the surface, that would help, too. I could lay the pieces along them and wouldn't have to correct the angles again and again."

"Cool" Rose bit her lip. "Anything else?"

"I'd buy one of these fancy machines with long sewing arm, special for quilting. Like the one at the quilting shop. I'd love to have one of these."

"Are they very expensive?"

Mom shrugged.

"Well, yes. But, most important, it takes a lot of space to use them. They come with their own bench, where you put the quilt in the rollers and then you move the sewing head around."

"Isn't it, like, very heavy?"

"It is" Mom grimaced. "I always take much longer than anyone else. I'm not heavy enough to push that with my body, so..." she shrugged.

Rose nodded slowly.

"I could buy one that looks almost like a normal machine, though. There are ones that have more space under the arm, so when you're sewing in the middle of a big piece, and have no way to turn it around and get a better angle, you can just roll it all up and push it under the arm. They have even twenty inches space, so you can fit a lot of rolled-up quilt there."

"But they are pretty expensive, too?"

"Much less than the one with the frame, definitely. But one from a good brand will still cost a lot."

"And one from a not so good brand?"

Mom glanced at her.

"It will be even more expensive in a long run. For example, once it breaks."

"Ah."

That explained rather a lot, actually.

Except for stuff that apparently came with the flat, like the oven or the fridge, everything they had was top-notch. Mom's computer looked fancy and impressive, with the screens and everything, and it being the working tool made it probably a priority for being kept up to date. Everything that Mina owned was either handmade by Mom, or very, very sturdy and of good brands. They weren't complicated things - the desk was just a simple top with two cabinets, the desk chair had no special adjustments, the bed was just a plain bed - but everything was high quality. No shoddy, rickety item there. No peeling paint, no signs of previous use, no scuff marks. The same went for all accessories and even school supplies.

And Mom's sewing machine was a gleaming, well-maintained object. Rose couldn't even tell, but it probably also had an impressive price tag.

Mom liked to have things that worked properly without having to be fixed again and again. She wouldn't buy something inferior just because she couldn't afford the best one.

_She'd rather go without than settle for something that wasn't just so._

"What about moving out?" Rose blurted out suddenly. "If we gave up this flat, Mom? If you... if we moved outside London, would you be able to afford a bigger place? And have the tables there, and everything?"

"Oh, kitten. No, I'm afraid not that easily. This one I rent from your grandparents, you see. At a 'family discount'. Or rather, nobody was renting it at the time, and I needed it, so grandpa just told me to pay the rent and bills. I'm not sure we'd be able to find something much cheaper, and I can't risk us losing our home if I have a worse month, you know. Like last year when in February..."

Rose nodded.

Obviously, freelancing wasn't a stable thing. Mom seemed to be doing quite fine right now. She was working nights, because she said night was better for programming, and sleeping during the school hours, but didn't look stressed or overly in a hurry. But probably there were better and worse months, and Mom didn't want to risk moving somewhere and being stuck with much less forgiving landlord than grandpa.

"Yes" she said finally as Mom looked at her, chewing at her thumbnail. "I understand. But if you had money, you would?"

Mom shrugged.

"If I could find the right school for you, I'd move in an eyeblink. I'd have to be in London pretty regularly, but if it was a place with good train connection..." she sighed. "Yes, definitely. What, do you know a place? Or a buried treasure we could use to bolster up our finances?"

"No, I was just... A girl at school was talking about her parents building a new house and apparently they asked her for her choices. Like, what kind of stuff she wishes she had. You know, general stuff. A fireplace, a movie projector, a balcony. So she asked for a place for her bike and the sports gear, but it got me thinking, what I would like to have."

"And?"

Rose smiled, trying to channel Mina effectively.

"A workshop. Like a real place for you. With lamps and everything. And a walk-in closet for me. And a bike shed would be nice, too" she added at the last moment. "And a lot and lot of storage space for all the craft supplies and paper and pencils and whatever. And a bigger kitchen, yes."

"So we stop bumping into each other when we work on something."

"Less spillage risk when you don't have to sneak around someone with a bowl full of cream."

"But a fireplace would be nice, too. We could grill marshmallows and sit by it and read."

"A projector. We could watch movies on a large screen."

"I could buy all the DVDs of whatever we missed at the cinema and put up large speakers and watch it without everyone making stupid noises and throwing popcorn."

"And a large porch. We could sit outside during rain and watch everything around us."

"And watch storms."

"And sunsets."

Rose sighed and swallowed thickly.

"I wish we could."

"Well, let's say that if this current job pays what they are promising, I'll be adding to my savings a significant amount. Maybe, at some point, we'll be able to afford something reasonable..." Mom grimaced and sniffed. "Well. For the time being, let's focus on making the most bloody impressive Christmas quilt the Camden Christmas Fair had ever seen. Take these and put them under on bench in kitchen. I'll review them tomorrow and see if I have enough to make a snowflake quilt with all the blues and purples. You know, Frozen style. That would be a good way to use up the pastels I'm normally not really keen on. Could use green and yellow for a bit of shading on that icy blue, to add depth..." she worried her lip with her teeth. "And I'd add a border and backing in that deep, royal purple, like Anna's cape. If I manage to get them both done by the beginning of December, I could submit them to two different fairs."

_Wow._

Mom rubbed her hands together.

"So one Christmas quilt and one Winter Fairyland" she said softly, barely loud enough for Rose to hear.

 

 

####

 

The piano in the big, slightly dusty room was older than any instrument Mina had ever touched. Decorative “J. Tresselt” in the middle of the cover was so faded it was barely legible - she only managed to decipher it by the strategic use of her mobile’s torch app - and the two brass medals stamped into the dark wood were covered with strange, foreign letters that even the best light couldn’t make more understandable. The dark wood was scuffed and scratched, the keys yellowed and the key cover seemed to be slightly wobbly on its hinges.

It was also not tuned. Mina's fingers picked a simple practice melody and she grimaced as some notes fell flat. She worked however up and down the scale, repeating the exercise, just to ensure her fingers would stay reasonably in shape. The pedals were more resistant to her feet than the ones she was used to, and even some of the keys didn’t work with equal pressure, which made practising a bit of a struggle.

At least the bench was comfortable and long enough for two, so she could go up and down the keyboard with ease, without a need to drag the stool around. She settled on a simple melody she had studied a year earlier and tried to find a section of keyboard on which it would hit the smallest number of flat notes.

"Stop this immediately!" aunt Catherine's voice trembled with annoyance. "What is this? Why are you sitting here? What are you doing?"

"I wanted to play something" Mina was already on her feet and closing the keyboard cover. "I thought I was far away from everyone to not disturb..."

"Well you thought _wrong_. Now, stop this, it's awful."

"Yes, the piano..."

"There's nothing wrong with the _piano_ , child. There is everything wrong with you. You have no talent and no skills for this. There are some actual talented people in this family, but definitely not _you_... stop wasting your time on this. You need to pay more attention to your homework."

"I did my homework" Mina took a step back, frowning. “I just wanted…”

“Not everything is about what you want, young lady. Now go to your room and learn something useful, so you don’t become a parasite, living off other people’s money!”

_Like you and Anne? Are you even sane?_

 

#

 

At dinner everyone was rather quiet. By the time the tea was poured and Mrs Reynolds had retired for the night - with Mina promising to collect all the dishes and Georgiana tasked with loading the dishwasher - aunt Catherine was halfway through the crossword, aunt Anne was done with her gossip magazine and aunt Georgiana...

"Rose, if you want to try your hand at playing, you can use the piano in my room."

Mina's eyes snapped to her aunt's face.

"I..."

"That makes absolutely no sense, Georgiana. Girl can't even play a simple tune."

"I only tried to... I mean, I was just checking the piano in the music room, but it sounds all wrong."

Aunt Catherine's voice was cold and tense.

"That was my sister's favourite instrument. Don't you dare disparage it! You know nothing about music, you little..."

"You're right" aunt Georgiana bit her lip and chewed on it for a moment, as her aunt froze mid-gesture. "It is a very nice pianoforte, but I hadn't tuned it in ages. Some of the keys are probably a few notes off by now. Can't expect any melody to sound normal on it."

Aunt Catherine blanched.

"Wh... what!? This is a perfectly good piano! Why would you..."

"It's old" aunt Georgiana shrugged. "It doesn't stay in tune anymore as the pins are too loose. And keeping it constantly tuned puts too much strain on the frame. I know Mother loved that instrument and that's the very reason I'm not putting it to use. I don't want to terminally damage it simply by trying to _tune_ it."

Somewhere in the middle of Georgiana's small speech, Mina saw her father's face from the corner of her eye. Her father's stony face.

_Oups?_

Georgiana followed her glance and sighed.

"Rose, you can go to my room now, if you want. After all, it's isolated from the others by the empty ones, so nobody will hear you practice. I'll take care of the dishes and then I can find you some simple exercises."

Mina stood up quickly, almost running out of the room, but her father's growly 'Georgiana!' stopped her just behind the door. She listened intently.

"Come on, William. It was _bound_ to happen. I understand your wish... no, actually, you know what? I _don't_ understand. That kid had a right to be brought up surrounded by all kinds of music, not only your beloved heavy metal. However much _you_ may hate everything else, the fact is, Rose has potential to be extremely talented. And you've _wasted_ it. And I allowed you to. But now? _No more._ I'm going to teach my _only remaining niece_ how to play the bloody piano and you will keep silent about this, are we clear?"

The silence in the room was terrifying.

_Did aunt Georgiana just scream at Dad?_

_Did aunt Georgiana just say he doesn't want music here?_

_Did..._

She shook all over.

She allowed me to use her piano. Finally!

"Are we clear, William?!"

Mina tiptoed quickly to the stairs.

_Let's try playing something interesting before she comes, too, and I'll have to pretend I have no idea what I'm doing._

 

#

 

Georgiana's room was fascinating. There were bookcases along the wall, one of them full of what Mina easily identified as music sheets and songbooks. Others held numerous books on variety of subjects - she could easily identify ones that were Georgiana's 'professional' library, but there were also two shelving units full of...

_Is that manga? Aunt Georgiana reads... Ranma? Seriously?_

Mina crouched in front of the shelf filled with small, nearly-identical volumes.

_Sherlock. Lady Oscar. Sailor Moon?!_

_Wow._

Now, the pianoforte.

It was a gleaming, modern, white-with-silver affair. All the keys were perfect and as she ran her fingers through them, all responded to touch in equal manner. The pedals had just the right amount of resistance in them, and aunt Georgiana had the same kind of bench - instead of a round stool - as the one downstairs. It looked slightly unusual, paired with an instrument that looked very twenty-first century, with its cover of striped yellow, sleek fabric, but somehow it worked. Mina sat in the middle, carefully placed her fingers and played a scale.

_God, this is perfect. This is way better than the pianos at the music centre. Oh, I wish we had room for one like this!_

The sound was clear, the response from the keys changing as she changed the way she was striking them, playing up and down two octaves, just to hear the pearly-clear tones, sometimes letting the sound die slowly, sometimes cutting it off sharply, changing the fingers used and flexing her whole hand.

It took her a moment to notice Georgiana's shadow falling over the keyboard. She snapped her head up to look at her aunt, meeting the same crystal-blue gaze as her father's.

"Darling, you look so much like your mother when you do this."

She sniffed and raised her head.

"Tell me. I need to know... what happened?"

Georgiana sighed and folded down to sit on the floor.

"Come here" she patted a spot next to her. "I will tell you as much as I can, without telling anyone's secrets, OK? I can't tell you what I was told in confidence or what I heard by accident and wasn't supposed to."

Mina frowned, but slid to the floor by Georgiana's side. Next thing she knew, she found herself pulled down into her aunt's lap, Georgiana's fingers carding through her hair in a calming manner.

"Your mother... she is three years older than me. Even a little less. That makes her almost eight years younger than your father, yes, I know. In case you wish to know, her birthday is on November eleventh. She was a student when they met, through common friends. I wasn't there for the most of it, because by the time she moved to Lambton, I had already left for my college. One weekend I came home, I think after Christmas, and William was having drinks with his best friend and some other people - so he said at least - and he really wanted me to come with, to meet someone. And she was so perfect, so... so different from all the stuffy people we normally knew, like our extended family of ladies and sirs and lords whatevers. She hugged people. Me, included. And it was funny to look at her with William, because she is, like, a head shorter than him. I mean, you're now what? Five feet? She is five feet two. Basically, in a year, you should be as tall as her. And she was the first person outside of school that I could talk to about playing the piano. She..." Georgiana sighed. "She seemed so... so soft. And I couldn't understand what someone who can wax poetic about freedom of sharing and openness of the internet sees in my stuck-up, all-business brother."

Mina searched for something to say that would not betray her knowledge on the topic of open source and free software.

"And then they broke off, and I didn't see her all summer, because she got a job for three months in some IT corporation, and then I left for my second year and when I came back at the end of September, they were all in love again, even worse than before, because it was the preparation for Jan... for a wedding, and they were very involved in all the details, spending days over invitations - she is very artistically inclined, by the way."

"I see..."

"And then I... I had some problems. And she helped me, a lot. A lot. And then there was the wedding, and at some point she moved together with William, and I watched them every weekend I was there, and it was, like, the sweetest thing _ever_. And then there was the summer break and I suddenly noticed that she's not just getting a bit plump, but, you know..."

"I had Sex Ed, Aunt G."

"Well, yes. And she spent the whole summer explaining to me that Uni isn't bad and that I shouldn't be afraid of meeting new people... She was _pregnant_ and she still worried about me not being comfortable leaving for university. And your Dad... he couldn't tear himself away. She had to kick him out the door to make sure she gets to the office on time. And then we all moved here, to this house, because the works were finished, so it became liveable again. It took the whole summer, actually, but we finished on the same weekend that I left for Edinburgh... and then you were born, just three weeks later."

Mina swallowed and nodded mutely.

"And then... I don't really know" the older woman rubbed her face. "But something broke between them and she left one day. She left a note, but I don't know what it said. I was actually home for a week, because I got such a terrible cold I couldn't attend classes anyway. But I was stuck in my room, to avoid sneezing at anyone, so I'm not exactly sure what happened."

"Is this why Dad doesn't play any music, except in the car? She was a musician?"

"In a manner of speaking, yes. She also sings - she used to sing a lot. Everything. Musicals, pop, ballads, shanties. Once I've even heard her trying the aria from 'The Magic Flute', but she said she isn't built in the right way for this one."

Mina turned to look up at Georgiana's face.

"Do you know why she left?"

A sigh.

"I have my suspicions. But it's just me and my suspicions, nothing substantial. So I can't tell you. I really wish you could meet her one day. I wish _I_ could see her again one day."

_If everything goes according to plan, you just may..._

"Thank you" Mina said aloud finally. "I think I have to go and pack for tomorrow."

"If you have time in the afternoon, we could start some simple exercises, you know? I could show you some tricks for properly hitting the keys, and dig up the sheets that I used to use when I started."

"Dad won't be happy with us..." she trailed off, unsure.

"Let me deal with William, Rose. You _deserve_ to be taught properly."

Mina rose to her knees and pressed a kiss to Georgiana's cheek.

"Thank you."

She saw her aunt startle a bit and raise her hand to the spot that had been kissed.

"No... no problem, Rosie. Good night."

"Night."

 

 

####

 

She made sure Mom was intently banging at her keyboard, headphones firmly on, two screens black and covered with nearly magical code. Coast was clear. She could safely search Mina's room for the most important textbook of that year.

Italian for beginners.

It had to be somewhere there - she had already found the second volume, but it was not enough, so she had to dig deeper into the boxes stored under Mina's bed (where old school stuff turned out to be stashed).

Coming across Mina's diary - looking at the penmanship, probably first grade - she heroically fought the impulse to open it and read it right now. First, she still hadn't found the needed book. Second, it was _Mina's_ diary and if one day her sister decided Rose should have access to it, she would tell her. She wouldn't be very happy if Mina ever found her own journal and read it without asking, so she felt she should extend the same courtesy to her sister.

At the bottom of a box filled with loose pages and exercise sheets, the book was found. At last.

 

#

 

Having spend an hour going through the book littered with Mina's pencilled notes and remarks she felt a twinge of jealousy towards her twin. Not that she would have switched from French to Italian at that point, but damn it, Italian _was_ easier. Of course it helped that she already knew French but the pronunciation itself was a clear advantage of what she was trying to study right now.

She stretched on the bed, silently repeating the basic verb conjugation. She would have been happier with an equivalent of her own French grammar reference, but this book was quite good enough for now. At least she'd be able to learn the pronouns and other small details she kept mistaking in class.

By the time she noticed she was nodding off she had read through half of the book and felt much better about her chances at not making Mina's grades spectacularly bad. She could also consider asking Dad to sign her up for some Italian lessons once she was back home. There were classes at school, but they would have probably conflicted with her French.

She looked at the book in front of her and performed a theatrical facepalm.

_21:15, still early enough._

She clicked the phone on and thumbed SUSAN.

 

"Whassup?"

"Are you in your room?" she whispered urgently.

"Yeah. What's wrong?"

"Nothing. I'm an idiot. Go to the bookcase by the desk and look at the bottom shelf, the bigger books. Look for a large blue book."

"Blue... What is this about?"

"About you at least knowing what you're reading on French. This is my first textbook. I just fell asleep over the basic Italian one, so I thought you could..."

"Ah" she heard Mina cough. "Here it is. Right. Perfect. Oh, finally. Why didn't I think about it?"

"Because aunt Catherine is an energetic vampire and she sucked you dry of initiative."

"How did you manage to survive that long here?"

"Guess why I ride my horse a lot."

Mina snorted weakly.

"That makes sense."

"OK, I'm going to bed now. Just woke up with my nose stuck in the section about shopping. Night."

"Night. Thanks, Rose."

"It's not about you, little sister, it's about my grades."

 

She thumbed the end of connection, but immediately the phone buzzed.

 

SUSAN

 

"What?"

"I talked with aunt Georgiana today" Mina said softly. "Sorry, you woke me up and I forgot to tell you. She told me they actually lived in Lambton, and then in Pemberley. And we were born _here_. And then one day Mom left. Of course she didn't say anything about me, or, you know, _us_ , but she said they met when Mom was _twenty_. And aunt Georgiana loves Mom. And I think she misses her. And that she doesn't know why, but she has some ideas. She didn't want to tell me what they were, though."

"Wow. That's actually a lot! At least we know who left who."

"And that I used to live here already, once, long time ago."

"Which means Mrs R knows that there are two of us, by the way. She's been working for Dad like forever."

"OK, now, try to work on Mom a bit, OK? Be gentle. But, you know. Get that info out of her."

"I'll try, but she is working every free second now. Some idiot company decided they had already sold someone the system and now she has to write missing pieces from day to day, as the client asks for them. Or so I understood."

"Yeah, normal thing. I just hope they pay for any extra work. She had one company who first requested extra express work and then said they won't pay what they promised because the amount they listed was for a guy, and they won't pay a woman the same."

Rose sat up on the bed.

"They _what_?"

"They said, more or less, that they are allowed to pay Mom less because woman's work is worth less than man's."

"When are they from, seventeenth century?!"

"No, last February."

"Mom said something about February..."

"Yes, because then they said that if she doesn't want what they want to pay, they are stopping the payment altogether until there is a court case."

"Sshhhugar."

"Well said. She didn't want me to know, but aunt Jane said something by accident and then I pieced it together."

"I wonder how people can be that stupid!"

"Well, Mom has a lot to say on the topic on unequal pay. Just make sure you have an evening clear before you ask her. She had written articles about it, too."

"Mina?"

"Yeah?"

"I love Mom. I think. I kind of don't want to switch back. But I do, because we can't do it much longer, but..."

"I know, I know. I wish I could stay here, and see the Christmas decorations and see the house being built..."

"I will send you photos every day."

"It's not the same."

Rose sighed.

"Unless we work out how to get them together, it will be all we'll have."

"Then let's maybe get to work, hm?"

"I'd much rather get to bed."

"That's OK too. Night."

"Yeah."

 

 

####

 

Tuesday was challenging, but at least now, with Rose's old textbook, she had some fighting chance with French. Not a particularly big one, but, having spent the early morning on studying the first few chapters - luckily, with English explanations - she felt slightly better now, and started figuring out the similarities between French and what she already knew from Italian. Obviously, pronunciation was going to be a huge issue, but she had already figured out that there were enough French lessons on Youtube to satisfy needs of any beginner student.

The day went quite painlessly - trying to decipher the reading assignment in French wasn't nearly as painful now, even after that short session with the textbook. She simply took each word apart into "looks like I know it" and "grammar suffix" and made out the meaning based on the pronouns and prepositions she managed to master. She was not going to catch up to Rose anytime soon, but it was a challenge she felt was now in her reach.

All day, however, she had been preoccupied with her morning ride to Lambton with Dad.

 

#

 

The breakfast was blessedly silent. Dad kept glancing at aunt Catherine from time to time, frowning and biting into his toast in a somewhat angry manner. Anne and aunt Catherine kept mum, not even exchanging their normal remarks on the general topics of morning papers, amount of jam Anne used on her toast or the way the eggs weren't shelled properly.

As she cleared her bowl of cereal and grabbed the packed lunch Mrs Reynolds had left by her plate, Dad folded up his paper and glanced at his watch.

"In car in three minutes? You'll be at school early enough to find Miss Yang and hand in the form for the contest."

Mina looked at him quizzically.

"She sent me an approval form yesterday, for the folk song contest? You wanted to participate?"

"Yes, but I thought..."

Dad silently handed her a folded piece of paper.

"Run. I'll be waiting in the car."

As they passed by the marker of a "Historical Point Of Interest" directing tourists towards Pemberley, Dad sighed, rather audibly.

"I hope you will do well in the contest" he said finally. "What do you want to sing?"

She watched the road for a moment.

"I'm not sure. Most folk songs are rather..."

"Bawdy."

"Yes, that."

"If you need some ideas..."

"I will bother aunt Georgiana a bit, I suppose" she interjected immediately.

"I..." he gasped and nodded, but continued after a heartbeat. "I was going to just suggest, maybe 'Loch Lomond'? I mean, you don't have to, but... I remember it's rather beautiful."

"I'll think about it. Thanks."

"Good. If you need something..."

"I'm sure aunt Georgiana has it in one of her songbooks."

"She probably does, yes" he agreed finally and turned his attention back to other cars.

When they stopped in front of the school and she was gathering her gym bag, she felt him catch her hand and looked up. There were wrinkles around his eyes as he frowned slightly, lips pressed into a thin line.

"I'm sorry, Rose" he said finally. "I... I didn't, I suppose I didn't see how much it would affect you."

"Dad?" she watched as he struggled with whatever it was that he was trying to explain.

"She... Your mother. She sang. A, a lot. For some time, I couldn't stand anything..."

"Except metal?"

"She never sang or played this."

_Ah._

"Go. You'll be late. Don't forget this" he handed her the folded piece of paper she had left on her seat. "When is the finale?"

"Third week of October..."

He nodded shortly and let go of her hand.

"Run now, ducky."

 

#

 

She walked up from the church in Kympton, passing by the sheep herds guarded by shaggy dogs and almost equally shaggy shepherds. When she knew she was already near to the "home fields", she veered off to the left and sat on one of the crumbling walls, thumbing through her phone. A quick search on YouTube provided her with the song she was looking for.

She nodded to the rhythm. The text wasn't too challenging, and she was quite certain aunt Georgiana did have the songbook that would help her master the melody. Still, she should probably better prepare herself from the recording. It wouldn't do to let everyone know she could sight-sing after all. That was one skill a child brought up by William Darcy definitely had no chance to learn.

Her phone buzzed and she smiled, seeing "JOANA" pop up on the screen.

"Joana? How are you?"

"Rose? Right? I didn't mix up..."

"No, Rose, definitely. Good to hear from you... I was thinking about calling, but I kind of didn't want to, you know. Bother you, in case you were busy, or something."

"Well, we were busy, yes. Moving all our stuff, shopping and so on" Joana sounded tired.

"So, how are you, actually? I mean, with your dad, everything working out OK?"

Joana snorted.

"Yes, even better than. He changed his job to make sure he is at home every day. I don't even have to switch schools or anything, because we just moved a mile and a half away, and now I actually am _closer_ to it... And dad is fine, yes. A bit worried about me, because I might have started an argument with him the moment he picked me up" she laughed, actually.

"Wow. What did you tell him?"

"Something that I feel it's unfair they went behind my back and did it without even telling me. He said that it was a bit of a surprise for him, too, actually."

"Ouch."

"Yeah. Mom... well, he doesn't want to say it, like, openly, but I'm guessing she found herself a boyfriend."

"Ouch."

"So, I'm kind of, you know, mostly pissed at her. And I told him that. So we're cool now. I'm thinking about calling her, maybe next week, and asking for explanation, but I was too busy to even plan what I'm going to say."

"And how's living just with your father?"

"You live with yours, you know what it's like" Joana pointed out.

"But I have three aunts living with us _and_ I've been like that all my life. So?"

"Well, it is a bit of a change. He told me yesterday that it was actually his first time buying pads..."

Mina snorted.

"All right. Yes, that may be a bit of a change for him."

"Next time I'll just do the shopping myself. Less embarrassing for both of us!"

"Definitely. At least I have aunt Georgiana who can do that for me..."

"Useful, having an aunt like this" Joana sighed. "But. I'll make do. And my dad's cousin will be coming to visit us in two weeks, so I'll drag her clothes shopping. I'm in dire need of new trousers and I kind don't see dad as the person to help me with _this_."

"I definitely prefer shopping with my aunts. Dad is... I don't see him giving me advice on the cut of my jeans!"

"Exactly. So. This is just a small check in, to let you know I'm still alive. And, well, to thank you for how you took care of me, you and Mina. Without her lunch I'd have starved to death, when we were stuck in the traffic for additional two hours! Are you keeping in touch with her?"

"Yeah, we talk often. I'll tell her you say hello."

"I would have called her myself, but she doesn't have my number, so I don't suppose she would have answered."

"I'll text her your contact, then she will have it."

"That will be OK, thanks. I'll... I suppose I have to run now. Dad's just parked. Thanks again, Rose."

"No problem. I hope it all works out fine."

"Yep, so do I. But it looks like it will be OK."

"See ya, Joana."

"Thanks, Rose."

She clicked the red button and sat there for a moment, looking at the phone with unseeing eyes.

_What would it be to live just with Dad? Without aunt Catherine or Anne? And aunt Georgiana?_

She frowned.

_Why is aunt Georgiana still living at home? She's older now than Mom was when we were born._

One more problem to unravel.

 

 

####

 

_From: Mina_

_To: Susan_

_How do you ever make them stop screaming?_

 

Little cousins were sweet and cute. They also shouted, ran around and made mess. One little blessing was that it wasn't Mom's place they were ruining, but grandma's. At least someone else would be tasked with cleaning after them. She, as the "oldest" and "most reliable" was supposed to oversee their garden activity, especially focusing on keeping them from drowning each other in the kiddie pool. So, no running and shouting for her. At least she could try to read one of the books from Mina's room - as discreetly as she could, as it was a "Doctor Dolittle" volume she hadn't had a chance to read before somehow.

First Friday of autumn was the one for "end of summer" garden party at the Bennets. It was supposedly the last party that included ice-cream (however hot the weather may be later on), the last party to include the kiddie pool (for which Rose was more than thankful) and the last to be held fully outside (again, no matter the weather).

She tried to keep track of most of kids, but it was mainly easy to single out Jimmy and Jonathan - and Adele. Others became a very big, blurry group of "all the little blonde girls" and Rose's head was slowly becoming more and more achy under the stress of keeping up the "oldest cousin" façade.

Adele was not helping. For some reason she seemed to be even more annoying than Mina had ever described, and Aunt Lydia was muttering every time she saw Rose around. Grandma, with her comforting patting Lydia on the hand and nodding her head, added to the general feeling that Rose (or rather, Mina) was not a particularly well-received guest at this specific party. Some ladies - grandma's cronies, as Mom called them absently - sitting at the same table as grandma, were discussing something in a rather hushed tones, looking at Rose strangely from time to time.

Obviously, there was no love for William Darcy's daughters - or William Darcy himself - at that party. Scraps of sentences she caught seemed to be all along the general tone of 'how like her father'.

_I am more and more curious as to what Dad actually did to earn himself scorn of this corner of London._

Aunt Kitty sat with her back to the gossiping group and rolled her eyes at Rose, as their gazes met, then shrugged her shoulders and continued tracking her twins carefully as they stumbled over some sand toys left unattended in the middle of the lane. Aunt Mary sat, isolated from everyone, at the end of the porch, sleeping Jimmy drooling on her shoulder.

The only ones on whom she could count to be actually at least somehow positively disposed towards Dad were, of course, uncle Charles and aunt Jane. Rose could also theorise also that, in specific circumstances and under the right conditions, the second Bennet sister might have been, but definitely didn't have to be, not adverse to mentioning him.

Not that Rose had managed to gather the courage to ask her that, yet. On the other hand, asking aunt Jane felt a bit like cheating, and there was nobody else she could count on to relate the story accurately. Still, even talking to aunt Jane about anything else was a relief. She didn't have to _act_ for a few moments.

 

#

 

Aunt Jane had managed to catch Rose before the other children arrived, leaving her brood to be temporarily managed by her husband, who did it by the simple expedient of running with them towards the pool and allowing them to splash each other with water.

"How are you doing?" she asked quietly.

"All OK" Rose answered shortly. "Why?"

"Lizzy is worried about your school. She let it slip yesterday and I'm wondering if there is anything..."

"It's just Italian" she grimaced. "I'm taking French and..."

"I see. Well, can't help you with this one, I'm afraid."

"We're coping. I found Mina's old textbook, she has mine, we're doing fine."

Aunt Jane smiled, but seemed a little tense.

"How long are you going to keep this up?" she asked finally. "Because if your grades..."

"It's just Italian and French. I'm sure we can undo it afterwards. And we planned to keep it up until Halloween, at most. At some point I have to get back to my horse and Mina has to pick up her piano lessons. Good thing they were scheduled from November anyway, because that would have been a _disaster_."

"Ah. So if we are invited to visit William the weekend after your birthday, it will still be Mina?"

"Unless you hear otherwise, definitely."

Jane nodded.

"Do you want me to take something to her?"

"No, we talk every other day and text a lot. We're fine. But you could do one thing" Rose cringed a bit. "Take her bra shopping? There must be at least one good shop in Lambton..."

Her aunt's eyes widened.

"Definitely" she said softly. "I'll check online what are the recommended ones and we'll be there early Saturday morning, just in time for birthday shopping. I've neglected you before a bit, haven't I?"

Rose snorted.

"You couldn't be there all the time. And you _did_ get me _this_ " she nodded towards Mom, who was unwrapping a platter of muffins they had baked together.

"Well, I try my best. Anything else you can think of?"

"Go and talk to her? I mean, Mina? She needs to talk to someone who knows. Now only me, I mean."

"Are you sure she didn't tell anyone?"

"Would I be here if she did?"

Aunt Jane nodded slowly.

"Well, no. I don't imagine... Maybe Georgi would have kept the secret."

"But _Mina_ doesn't know it."

"Then I'll kidnap her for the whole day. Whole Saturday just for us. Away from... other adults."

Rose shivered.

"As far as possible."

Aunt Jane frowned.

"But... if you leave at the beginning of November, then you won't be here for Lizzy's birthday..." she said slowly. "Oh. And I was planning..."

"When..." Rose swallowed. "When is Mom's birthday? Maybe we could..."

"Eleventh of November. That won't leave you much time to undo the damages once you switch."

"I wish I could stay. But then Mina wouldn't be here."

Jane grimaced.

"No good option here."

 

#

 

Unfortunately, right now uncle Charles was stuck with grandpa in the study, going over some accounting for the property and aunt Jane was very busy dressing Jonathan's scraped knee. Mom was doing her obvious best trying not to react to the remarks - now aimed _her_ way - from the cosy coterie of scheming familial witches at the other end of the table, pulling a crochet hook and a boxed ball of yarn from her bag and putting on her noise-cancelling headphones. Still, she probably knew what they were saying anyway, Rose could guess. Her hunched shoulders and tense face was a completely new sight - even worse than the way she curled up on herself during the welcome-back party.

Rose's jaws ached when she looked at Mom, but she couldn't work out any kind of solution that didn't include coming up to aunt Lydia and kicking her in the shin.

In the previous weeks she had learnt all the small expressions of her mother's face. Delight, amusement, hope, irony, tiredness, concentration and lack of patience. None of these looked as uncomfortable as _that_. Now Mom was speaking with her whole body, and it was almost screaming 'go away'.

Sparing one last glance for the rubber swimming pool (no little blonde in vicinity), Rose stood up and carefully checked for any stray grass on her dress. She snatched a glass of lemony water from one of the tables and drained it quickly, walking towards her mother. Her hand, coming between Mom's face and the square of wool she was stabbing, made her mother look up.

"What is it, ducky?"

"Let's go home, Mom" she suggested quietly. "I don't feel like sitting there anymore."

"Why? Aren't you having fun with your cousins?"

"Mom" she said with a sigh. "I've been sitting by the rubber pool for the last hour or so, guarding whoever tried to jump into it. If I wanted to be a lifeguard in my spare time, I'd join the school swimming program. No, I'm not having fun, I'm sorry."

She saw her mother's shoulders curl inwards even more.

"And neither are you" Rose added quietly. "Let's go home and I'll tackle my homework? I have to read stuff before Tuesday and I won't have time on Monday."

"Sure, kitten" Mom patted her cheek. "Let me just tell them we're leaving."

"Tell who? Why are you going already? Something wrong?" uncle Charles' hands fell on Mom's shoulders without any warning.

Rose apparently had one more of her mother's emotions to be added to the catalogue.

Mom flinched away from uncle Charles and closed her eyes, taking a deep breath.

"Shite, Lizzy, I'm sorry" Charles pulled back and walked slowly around them. "Sorry, Liz. I forgot. So sorry."

Mom's shaking hands let the crocheted project fall into her canvas tote. Rose quickly picked it and added the yarn wool box to the bag.

"Let's go, Mina" she managed to say finally. "Don't worry, Charlie. It's not your fault, stop trying to assume responsibility for things you are the most innocent in. Others should pick up the slack from time to time."

"Where are you going?" grandma's querulous voice rose above the general din of happily screaming children.

"Home" Mom picked up her bag and pulled Rose behind her.

"But Mina is needed here, to look after the kids!" grandma sounded even somewhat offended.

"Tell Adele to do it, instead. Mina should not be the only one who has to sit down and be at your disposal. Or maybe some of the grown-ups could sacrifice their treasured peace and go down there to keep the kids safe."

"But they have more than one, how can they...!"

Mom's eyes flashed and she grimaced in a rather ugly way.

"Well, I have exactly as many as I can, personally, take care of. Everyone should think before making more than they can manage. And no, I'm not talking about Jane, Mama, and I'm not jealous of her and Charles. Don't even _start_."

Aunt Jane smiled and nodded, just slightly. "Go, Lizzy. We'll talk later. Take some of my apple tart for Mina for the evening."

 

 

####

 

"What did you mean, Mom?"

Elizabeth looked at her, slightly puzzled, as the bus pulled away from the stop.

"Mean when, ducky?"

"When you said about... you know, making more children than someone can manage" Rose ended up whispering this part.

Mom blushed.

"I'm sorry, darling. I shouldn't have said it, but sometimes talking to grandma is a bit of a challenge for me. I start talking and then, bluuurgh, things start coming out of my mouth that I wasn't planning. Well, this is... Some people have too many kids to properly take care of them. And some have just the number they can actually work with. So Jane and Charles have five, and they do manage - and I have absolutely _no_ idea how! But _some_ people have just one and they anyway try to foist the kid on everyone else _and_ they blame others for not managing theirs when said kid does something wrong."

Rose did a quick calculation and all the little numbers added up to "Lydia".

"Mom..."

"I know. I shouldn't be saying all this stuff about our family. I love them, I appreciate the fact that thanks to grandpa we have a place to live and that we are all meeting from time to time in reasonably amiable atmosphere. It's just that sometimes they..."

"I don't mind moving" Rose didn't manage to stop herself from saying. "I mean, I have to ride a bus to school anyway, so, if it made it easier... I told you, if you find a place..."

_I really hope Mina will agree, because this sucks major time._

"Don't worry, ducky" Elizabeth leaned in and pressed a kiss to her forehead. "I'll think of something. At least I'm not still living with my parents. That could have led to justifiable patricide, I suppose."

"I'd bet on matricide" Rose mumbled.

"Well, that depends on who would get on my nerves sooner - grandma with her nagging or grandpa with his old jokes. She wants me to 'finally find a proper man' and he wants me to have a career at the university. I'm way too old for either of these. Being a programmer and an admin is apparently what I was made for, despite all the attempts of my dear parents to tell me otherwise."

"Maybe they should have been paying more attention" Rose said and immediately felt her ears redden in anticipation of her mother's next question.

"Mina...?" Elizabeth looked at her with narrowed eyes.

"Um" her daughter swallowed, hard. "You know. When they were..."

"God, Mina" Elizabeth moaned. "What... No, I'm not even going to _ask_ what you were talking about on that camp. I _know_ what girls talk about on camps. Gah. I'll kill Jane."

"And leave her five children half-orphans. Then you'd have to marry uncle Charles to make sure they have a mother."

"Mina!"

"What? Better a murderer aunt-stepmother than nothing."

"Really!"

 

 

####

 

_From: Susan_

_To: Mina_

_No idea how to make them stop screaming, but any suggestions how to make aunt C shut up will be appreciated. I'm considering poisoning her._

 

_From: Mina_

_To: Susan_

_She's probably resistant to most poisons by now. I'm not sure a snake wouldn't get sick after biting her._

 

_From: Susan_

_To: Mina_

_There goes my plan for a little herpetology research during the weekend. What about poisonous frogs?_

 

_From: Mina_

_To: Susan_

_No idea, but I'm sure the frogs are endangered species._

 

_From: Susan_

_To: Mina_

_Damn. I'll trawl Wikipedia for some home-made poisons. I'm almost sure something can be done from stuff we keep in the kitchen._

 

_From: Mina_

_To: Susan_

_Let me know when the witch is dead. Actually, you could start by checking if pouring some water on her won't work._

 

_From: Susan_

_To: Mina_

_Nope, there was rain yesterday, she's still standing._

 

_From: Mina_

_To: Susan_

_Not good. We'll think of something._

 

"Who are you texting with? I thought people Snapchat now, or at least use Facebook Messenger?"

"Just a girl from the camp. Her dad doesn't allow her to have social network profile, so she can only text and call. She is having problems with her aunt, who basically doesn't allow her to do stuff. At all."

"Mhm. Poor kid. Just don't stay up after midnight, OK? I know it's not a school night, but I don't want you to stay in bed until noon tomorrow. We're going to a book fair, remember?"

Rose froze for a moment.

"Ah. Yes. Sure. Tomorrow, yes."

"Everything OK, ducky?"

"Not really" she sighed. "Why does family have to be so complicated?"

"If I knew, kitten, I'd have resolved all our issues long ago."

 

#

 

 

After a relatively lazy weekend - a book fair was the only taxing task, but it was so much fun Rose didn't even notice when her feet started aching - came, as usual, a Monday.

A Monday of a surprise test.

In Italian.

No preparation, no cramming of old textbooks, no knowledge of other Roman languages could save Rose.

She filled the exercises in as well as she could, but it was rather obvious that the outcome was not going to be satisfactory for anyone.

Other lessons seemed to be at the same time stretching into eternity and running much too fast. She even prolonged leaving for home a bit by accosting the maths teacher and asking her for the details of the upcoming contest. Then she packed her bag very carefully. Then she was very kind and allowed someone else to get on the Tube instead of her.

Then, finally, she had to come home.

Mom was torturing the keyboard, muttering to herself things that sounded like obscenities, but were from no language Rose had ever heard - didn't even sound like Italian.

Putting her backpack down carefully, Rose sneaked into her room, toed off her shoes and fell on the bed. This week it was covered by one of the quilts Mom had made - it didn't really match the hues of the room, but the faded, gradiented pinks and purples somehow made sense. Here and there a slightly more saturated patch could be seen - she slid her fingers over one of particularly vibrant fuchsia and found it to be velvet. The ribbon on the border was worn and visibly patched in places, showing that the quilt was in obvious, constant use.

Mom knocked on her door.

"Mina? I need to talk to you, kitten."

"OK" she mumbled into the soft fabric.

Mom's fingers raked through her hair slowly.

"What happened at school today?"

Rose turned her head slightly to the side, looking up at Mom, who crouched next to her bed.

"Not much, really" she made a quick review of the day. No arguments, no weird exchanges on the stairs, not even eye contact with the key bullies.

"Your Italian teacher called me, you see" Mom sat down on the rug, bringing her face to Rose's level.

"Ah."

"She said she was worried that something was wrong with you and that it may be affecting your work. Of course, they are assuming that 'something wrong' is at home, but _we_ know it's not that - at least I hope so - so I'm betting that something happened at school and that's why you got thirty percent on your Italian test."

Rose sighed.

"No, not today. Today it was quiet."

"If not today, then...?"

She hid her face in the sweet-smelling bedspread. Suddenly she felt a stab of jealousy. Mina was coming back here, in a month, yes? In a month, it will be Mina who will be surrounded by all the things that Mom made for her, all the cute and funny and...

"Mina?"

She moaned.

"It's just some kids" she mumbled. "Some kids are stupid."

"I think we've established that long ago. Anything changed?"

"Not much, but... It's hard to listen to this all the time. Like they never get tired of that one topic. One stupid topic. Why can't they just _let go_?"

Mom sighed and dropped her head to the bed.

"What started it this time?"

"We were discussing jobs titles. And the various ways that the jobs that used to have 'man' in them are now changed to 'person' or, or 'officer'. And, that in other countries, in other languages, women are actually promoting having separate titles for male and female employee. And that it depends on the type of language, and local culture and history and... stuff."

Mom nodded, turning her head to the side. Rose could see the top of her head, unevenly combed parting of her hair and the bridge of her nose, covered with freckles.

"And then someone asked what about jobs that don't have 'man' in the name. Like 'teacher' or 'doctor' or 'janitor', and some guy from the back asked 'So what about 'programmer' then? So that Bennet knows how to call her mother properly' and..." she sighed. "And Mrs Snaith told him off. For using my surname, instead of just my name."

"But not for the question?"

"No. And then..." she stopped for a moment. "Then someone said something like 'yeah, because Bennet anyway isn't her surname, is it? because nobody should have the same surname as their mother' and..."

She saw Mom's shoulders tense.

"I think a visit to school is required" she said flatly. "There is a parents meeting next week, isn't it?"

"On Wednesday, yes."

"Very well. I think..." Mom sat up again. "I think I'll need to discuss some little details of class discipline with your teachers. This has gone beyond 'kids being kids'. I'm sorry, kitten. Will you survive until next Wednesday? And, if this doesn't work..." she shrugged. "We'll see if we can work out a transfer. I'm sure we can find a school that will fit you better than this. Something that has reasonable results, and I suppose if there is anything amiss, we can pick it up ourselves, hm? As long as you feel better there."

_Definitely must call Mina today._

"OK. I think I won't kill anyone before Wednesday."

"Thank you. Try not to tear off any arms or bite anyone either, please."

"Can I at least look at them with disgust?"

"Disgust... allowed. Now, dinner? I made lasagne."

"I love you, Mom."

A short peck on her cheek.

"Love you too, kitten. We'll deal with this, I promise. Do you have anything to do for tomorrow?"

"Just one page for Biology."

"OK, try to fill this in, I will heat the lasagne up, and then you can focus on Italian for the rest of the evening, OK? Try to make sure this test doesn't drag your average down too much?"

Rose nodded into the quilt.

_...and I'm calling Mina the moment Mom puts the headphones on._

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter is half-written and the one after is plotted... But it may be a while before I update. Need to reconsolidate the timeline and make sure I'm not writing something absolutely idiotic regarding times.
> 
> Oh, in case anyone wonders: The 'current' events are happening in 2017, and the last day described, Monday, is the 25th of September.


	9. The love we share is there

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Uh-oh.  
> Georgiana tells her part of the story, and Lizzy finally tells hers.  
> Also, other people finally say some stuff.  
> Some reveals.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Somehow it happened and two days ago that chapter was barely readable and had 6k words and now it's 13k. And, hopefully, makes sense :)

Mina was fretting.  
She had certain experience with reporting her various transgressions to Mom.  
She had absolutely no idea how to tell Dad what she did.  
Holing up in her room for the whole weekend under the guise of homework, she actually did some homework - reading the second year French textbook and trying to cram as much of it in her head as was possible. Finally Georgiana pulled her out of the bed, promising her the first piano lesson.  
As her aunt guided her through the basics of the instrument - the keys, notes and how they were related to the notes in the musical score - she observed the differences between her and Mom. Of course, not having an instrument available everyday, Mom had much less practise in using it, but there were things which they did in a vastly different way.  
Mina had been taught the proper way of holding her hands - loose fingers, firm arms - sitting in Mom's lap, when she was four. Her hands, held by Mom's bigger ones - _"Now, make a little wave, Mina... just like this, see?"_ \- and starting with simply picking out a melody she already knew, the simplest thing Mom could find - "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star". Only later she was shown the staff, the music notation and learnt to identify the things Mom had already shown her, when written on the page.  
Aunt Georgiana was going from the other direction - probably because a fourteen year old with a standard school music education could be expected to at least know where on the staff 'c' is and how to reasonably link the notation to the sounds, even if not necessarily on a grand piano.  
"OK, so. The notation on the staff you are familiar with, I suppose" aunt Georgiana pointed to the exercise in front of them "and this is the 'c' key" she hit it lightly. "With every full note, going up, one white key to the right. Like this" she played the C major scale slowly. "Now, if you want to actually learn playing, first you have to practise holding your hands correctly. I'm not sure how to explain it to you..." she frowned. "I've been doing it for so long I don't remember how they trained me" her fingers moved over the keys. "Try showing me how you would have done it, right now, and I'll tell you what to correct, OK?"  
Mina nodded and sat up next to her, a bit stiffly.  
"I think I'm too far" she said as she reached towards the keyboard. "This would be uncomfortable."  
"Ah, definitely. My arms are way longer than yours. We can move the bench."  
They moved closer and started again. Mina didn't even have to pretend - she had been away from the keyboard for three months  _and_ so tense that she could barely think straight. Relaxing her fingers was quite a bit of a challenge.  
They tried for half hour more, until they were both a bit tired, despite not having actually done a lot of work.  
"You're getting a hang of it" aunt Georgiana said finally. "Now, try to play the C major scale, up and down. Just the scale, nothing more. Remember about loosening your fingers, but your arms should be a bit stiffer. Not very stiff, but just a bit, so you can strike the key properly."  
Mina nodded, and made a valiant attempt to let her fingers relax.  
"Very nice. I suppose at your age, you have much better attention span than the kids who normally start when they are five. I remember being bored out of my head by playing scales, but if that was what I had to do to learn, then..."  
"How old were you?"  
Georgiana shrugged.  
"Five or six. Probably five. Our father - your grandfather - told me that my mother had loved music and had great talent, so he wanted me to be at least educated properly in that area. I had seen sooo many photos of my mother playing and I wanted to be just like her when I grew up! So I practised as much as I could, even when my teachers said I should stop, take a break. I played everything they gave me, stupid boring scales and equally stupid practice tunes. I was sick of 'Old McDonald' very quickly, but I practised any time I could. William got annoyed by it very easily, because at that time he was oh-so-grownup at fourteen and really hated nursery rhymes. He was _not a kid anymore_ and listened to music for big people, not to stupid kid tunes."  
"Meaning?"  
"He had just discovered Black Sabbath at the time. Father managed to convince him to use his headphones - and to _not_ listen to it at full volume - but he tended to roll his eyes and make noises whenever he heard me working out fingering of something like 'Au Clair de La Lune'. He still remembered our mother playing, which was, of course, what a grownup woman would be able to do. So he compared her Chopin to my French children songs and, well. You can guess he wasn't impressed."  
"But... you were, like, _six_. What was he expecting?"  
"He was... He was a boy who lost his mother at nine, kitten. There weren't many female figures available to him, apart from Aunt Catherine and Aunt Mathilda - who had her hands full with your uncle Richard most of the time - so our father tried his best, but his generation was not conditioned for men to be caregivers. Me, I was lucky, as aunt Mathilda saw me as a respite from the crazy antics of Rick and Matt, but she didn't feel she could take on yet another teenage moody boy. Of course, this is from the perspective of my thirty two years of age, now. At that time I just knew that aunt Matthie taught me things that Papa wouldn't remember to, and she convinced Mrs Reynolds to come to be my full time live-in nurse - Mrs R used to work for her friends, before. They took care of the more routine side of care - dressing, teaching me how to lace my shoes, not wiping my nose on my sleeve" here Mina snorted. "Well, yes, they sewed wide, scratchy bands on my sleeves to train me. And Papa did the other things - the big, challenging stuff, like finding me the right music teacher, choosing the better preschool in Lambton, bringing in a French tutor who specialised in working with younger children... Of course, day to day tasks, like driving me to school or picking me up were up to Mrs R. Your Dad, however, well. He didn't have a lot of support that someone at the age of fourteen should receive."  
"Dad did all this for me, didn't he?" Mina was looking at the keyboard. "And you."  
"Yes, darling. Your Dad... He grew up, after all. He wanted to be the best parent you could have, and when I graduated university, and decided to stay living at Pemberley, I helped him, because I..."  
Mina nodded and pressed herself closer to Georgiana.  
"Thank you" she sighed. "I think I have to work on my maths some more."  
"Sure. Same time next week?"  
Mina nodded slowly and stretched, standing up.  
"Ah, aunt G..." she smiled cautiously. "I want to take part in a singing contest. Would... would you be able to help me?"  
Georgiana turned to her, eyes wide.  
"What would you like to sing?"  
"The contest is, well, it is a folk song thing. And I was looking for the right song, but they all seemed, you know. Not appropriate. I'm not even sure what some of them _mean_. But..." she licked her lips. "Dad suggested one."  
Georgiana frowned.  
"Your Dad?"  
"Yes."  
"You mean, William Darcy?"  
"Yes?"  
"William Francis Adam Darcy, my older brother?"  
_That's a mouthful..._  
"Yes."  
"He suggested a folk song you could sing, on a school contest? _A folk song_?"  
"Auntie..."  
"No, no. Just making triple sure we're talking about the same guy. A tad taller than me, black hair, going grey, blue eyes, thinks all music except for heavy metal is rubbish?"  
"Well, he did suggest I could sing 'Loch Lomond', yes."  
"I'll have to check if he is OK" aunt Georgiana concluded. "But. Well. 'Loch Lomond'? 'You take the high road, I take the low road' and so on? I'm sure I have it somewhere... Here. Do you want me to accompany you, or you need just the vocal line?"  
"I don't think there will be any possibility for accompaniment during the contest, so I'd have to sing it just by myself anyway" Mina shrugged. "I tried to sing it with the YouTube videos but it's mostly guys, so it's kind of weird."  
"OK. We can do it like this..." aunt Georgiana opened the songbook and cracked it flat to put it on the music stand. "I will play this through, one time. Then I'll sing it to you, to give you the feeling of what would the human voice sound like... and then you can try singing with me. Do you have the lyrics?"  
Mina waved her phone.  
"Very well. So, like this..."  
Mina could have simply borrowed the songbook, but blowing her cover _now_ , when aunt Georgiana started finally telling her all these stories, would be a waste. No sight-singing for her then. At least at her school, that wasn't a skill that had been taught - and apparently at Rose's neither. Learning the tune by listening to aunt Georgiana was fine, too, even though she sang in a completely different style from Mom. It was challenging and interesting. Mom's voice was clearer and less breathy, aunt Georgiana's was softer and slightly darker, but still a soprano - as far as Mina could guess without checking with Mom.  
Then came Mina's turn and she took two measured breaths, stood straight, propped the phone on a book on top of the piano and nodded to aunt Georgiana. Another breath. And another. And...

#

_He dropped the pen he had been playing with, sitting at his desk and looking at the documents with unseeing eyes. Of course he knew the moment would come. Georgiana had been angry enough at him to start the lessons even the day just after their argument, but Rose had next to no time with all her school assignments, so apparently Saturday was The Day._  
_He heard the scales being played over and over, and single notes, and scales again. And then it was silent and he breathed in relief. The silence was broken, finally, by Georgiana's - obviously, it couldn't have been Rose - playing 'Loch Lomond'. Of course. Rose said she would be asking Georgiana for help._  
_Another repetition, now with Georgiana's voice softly singing one verse and the chorus._  
_And a little pause._  
_He had steeled himself against it, but still, the clear, still-childish soprano shook him to the core. Rose was singing, Rose was singing and he sat there, hands buried in his hair, trying to calm down the shivering that overtook him._  
_"William" Georgiana's hand pushed his face up. He hadn't noticed when the silence fell, or when she opened the door to his room. "If you don't sign her up for proper music lessons, I'll do it, so help me. Piano, singing, everything. I'll drive her, even everyday, if needed. There has to be a teacher in Lambton who will take her on. Start calling on Monday."_  
_He nodded mutely._  
_"And, Will?"_  
_"Yes?" he croaked._  
_"Consider trying again, would you?"_  
_"She doesn't want anything to do with me" he said softly. "But..." he shrugged. "Their birthday is coming. Maybe..."_  
_"Yes. Please. I'll... If you don't want to meet her, I can take Rose to London."_  
_"No, no. It should be me."_  
_She patted his shoulder and opened the door._  
_"Georgiana?"_  
_She glanced toward him as he stood up slowly, nodding to her._  
_"Thank you, sister."_

#

Weekend passed otherwise calmly, and Mina continued to practise the song in her room, quietly, in order not to attract anyone's attention. She sang more freely when walking up to home on Monday afternoon, but stopped halfway there and sighed. The churning in her stomach made it too uncomfortable to sing anymore.  
She had to resolve this. The deadline was Friday, and she simply had to finally tell Dad. She could only hope that once the exchange happened in five weeks, Rose's record would be cleared of all that Mina had managed to do under her name.  
Last thing she wanted was to have her stupid reactions affect Rose's chances to study what she was planning to.  
She sat on the wall and thumbed the phone ON. Biting her lip, she let her fingers hover over 'SUSAN' in the contact list.  
_No. I **am** Rose, however temporarily. I will deal with this. Somehow._  
Still, she felt vaguely guilty. She had tricked aunt Georgiana, after all. Her growled 'I need to talk to your father' after Mina had sang the whole song seemed... weird. Wrong. It all felt wrong.  
She wanted to continue the lessons with aunt G, but it seemed more and more unfair for them to be so excited about "Rose's" supposedly freshly uncovered talent, when it all had been Mina's - and Mom's - hard work, weekends spent at the music centre where Mom was renting hours with a pianoforte and a microphone...  
In a way she felt like these kids who are trained for days and days and then they go out on a stage in Britain's Got Talent and say in an innocent way "I just sing in my bedroom". Mom always made fun of the judges, who were supposed to spot stuff like this, and pointed out which children were actually naturals, which were just maybe sometimes taught the basics and which were so trained that they could barely take a breath out of order.  
And now she was one of them, actually. She hadn't been planning that, she hadn't been aiming at that, but she had hoodwinked Dad and aunt Georgiana into seeing a "natural talent" where... there was just a lot of previous practise.  
On one hand, it seemed a little annoying - she had spent all that time honing the breathing techniques, the proper support for her voice, the vowels... and they thought it was just Rose hiding her light under a bushel. Like... Like this stuff just _happened_ by itself.  
On the other, well. She was tricking them. She knew what to do and what to avoid - like sight-singing - and they didn't have experience with kids singing. Aunt Georgiana was, by all signs, only taught piano itself, and not singing.  
_Yh. And now **this**._  
Well, in London such cases were pretty straightforward - the teacher called Mom, Mom came to school, listened to another story about her volatile and unruly child, they talked it through at home, and that was it.  
Rose was obviously much more restrained, not having earned herself even one detention in the recent years. Mina was curious whether Dad even had an idea what to do in a case like that.  
She'd have to tell Dad at some point.  
_Maybe today._  
The deadline was closer and closer.  
_Maybe tomorrow._  
Sleeping three hours a night and spending the rest tossing and turning in her bed wasn't improving her mood even a bit.

#

Tuesday meant the preliminary round of the contest - everyone simply standing in front of the group and Miss Yang and presenting that they actually knew the song they had chosen.  
"I don't want to discourage any of you" the teacher said. "But I need you to try this first in front of this small audience. I want to hear where you are with the song itself, and if there is anything I can do to help you. In two weeks we'll have the actual first round, which will be singing in front of the jury. Now. Anyone feels like they don't really want to sing right now?"  
Angela raised her hand shyly.  
"I'm having problems with some of the words" she said, not looking up. "I'm thinking I should change the song, Miss."  
"Well, that's certainly possible, but do you think you'll be able to learn it in time?"  
"Mnotsure, Miss."  
"If you need my help, I'll be in this class after three, so you can come and we can try to work out some way to make it easier for you."  
"Thankyou, Miss."  
"Very well. Anyone else?"  
Most of them shrugged.  
"Fine. So, now, order alphabetical."  
Mina tensed for a moment, but then relaxed with a small smile. Vincent Crady was definitely before her on the list.  
"I'm singing 'Amazing Grace', Miss Yang."  
"Sounds promising. Go on, Vincent."  
Vincent was OK. Mina could see him as a serious competitor, but she wasn't _very_ worried. He tended to swallow sounds and hissed too much on sybilants.  
Once he was done and sat at his desk, he wiped the sheen of sweat from his brow and sighed theatrically.  
"Lyrics fine, the melody too, but I think you have forgotten to eat your breakfast today" Miss Yang smiled at him.  
"Miss?" he looked surprised.  
"These sounds are there for a reason, Vincent. Eating them won't make you feel better, but the song looks much worse without them. Try to make sure you do actually pronounce all of them."  
"Ah" he blushed. "I will, thank you, Miss."  
"Now, Rose. 'Loch Lomond', if I remember correctly."  
"Yes, Miss."  
Mina sighed. No piano, that was a bit easier - she wouldn't have to fit into someone playing an intro. Still, maybe it would have been easier with Mom, or at least aunt Georgiana...  
She straightened, breathed, closed her eyes and began.

_By yon bonnie bank an' by yon bonnie braes..._

"Very nice! Very well! I'd maybe tweak a pause here and there, to make it fit better with the rhythm, but it sounds very well! I'd say, competition-ready, Rose. Just remember to sing either 'before' or 'afore' every time in the chorus, to make it more consistent. Do you have someone who will help you to practise?"  
"My aunt, she plays the piano, and she helped me to get started. I've been practising since Saturday."  
"Very nicely done. Now, keep it up, remember about using the same word every time, and we can check it again on Thursday, to see how you're doing. We can go over the small corrections then. Now, Diane. Have you made up your mind...?"  
"I was thinking 'The Leaving of Liverpool', Miss Yang, but I'm not sure..."  
"Let us hear it. Just two verses, to see how you're doing."  
Diane was acceptable. Lewis, after her, less so, his voice all over the place and breathing uneven. Doris squeaked. Teddy, with surprisingly deep baritone, was good enough to be a threat to her.  
_Will have to practise more today. If I can._  
She grimaced. Singing wasn't easy when she couldn't relax.

####

Tuesday was indistinguishable from any other day of the last weeks. Nothing whatsoever happened - even the Biology test had been postponed. A new project was assigned and Rose was reasonably hopeful she would be able to deal with it easily, considering the amount of paper craft supplies Mina had in her room (and who knew how much more Mom could be hoarding in the tall, closed bookcase). Making a poster about tundra seemed definitely less like a challenge than passing another lesson of Italian without making a complete fool of herself. Basically, at that point, everything seemed easier than Italian, even breathing calmly and ignoring remarks about Mom's job and marital status.  
Mina had never mentioned the people in her school were _that_ single-minded. Annoying, yes. She did say something about mothers of her classmates being less than happy with _Miss_ Bennet, but somehow managed to miss the fact that the kids were pretty stupid about the topic, too.  
_She's probably used to it by now, but dammit, how exhausting this is!_  
When she arrived, dragging herself through the door with a heavy step, Mom was cleaning.  
"What happened?" she watched her for a moment, not comprehending exactly what she was seeing. The table had been clean when she left for school in the morning, and there were no signs of another kitchen accident, like the one with the flour.  
"Nothing" Mom's voice was clipped and tense. "I have to... I can't work out... Not important. Any homework?"  
"A poster about tundra. I need to have a..." she pulled out the correct notebook "A map, a climate graph, an example of flora and of fauna, and a picture of a local inhabitant and a note of something interesting regarding local customs."  
"Due when?"  
"Two weeks. Easy peasy."  
"What about Italian?"  
Rose cringed.  
"Nothing new. Just... can't focus very well."  
Mom nodded, still polishing the table top.  
"Do something else for a moment. Drawing? Crochet? You've been focused on school so much recently, you hadn't been doing anything else, just reading."  
"We could go out? I mean, just to the park? We could collect some leaves, I thought we could make something with them. Or conkers..."  
Mom sighed and gave the table another wipe.  
"I'd love to. But I have... I'm a bit stumped with a bit of code. I'm trying to work out how to fix an error and I've been stuck since yesterday. I can't... I we go out, I'll be only feeling that I should be here, doing something _useful_."  
Rose pondered it for a moment.  
"Maybe we could have a look at the pastel fabrics? You wanted to make the snowflake?"  
Mom sighed again and wrung the rag dry over the sink.  
"It sound too much like fun for my current state of mind" she said, smiling slightly. "It's just... It's a logical error. i tried to write it down, but there are so many elements I'm having a problem..." she trailed off, staring at the tiled wall in front of her. "It's... I need to make the system choose the option that is not the best at the moment, but will be the best as the outcome in time... I have to write a piece... that would..." she dropped the cloth and chewed on her lip for a moment. "...calculate depending on volatile... Dinner is on the stove, kitten. I need to finish this."  
And, in a flash, she was at the keyboard, muttering to herself, leaving Rose frowning at her back.  
Once she rinsed the plates - having stuffed herself full of cauliflower and tomato salad, chicken nuggets and green beans - and quietly put them in the dishwasher, she looked around for something to do that _wouldn't_ actually be reading Italian textbook, year two.  
Of course, there was always crochet. And knitting. And, if she wasn't mistaken, rug-making, judging by the half-filled piece of tough canvas at the bottom of the container her sister had marked as "WIP". She wasn't brave enough to pick any of these up, as she could very well imagine Mina's face once she saw the mangled stitches or crooked... whatever it was that one could do with a rug.  
There was always the tundra project and so she could at least start to search for anything at least remotely interesting. Opening Mina's laptop and clicking to Wikipedia was a matter of seconds. In another half hour she had twenty tabs opened, showing various flowers, animals and interesting objects to choose from. The rainfall data was a bit more of a challenge, but there seemed to be a number of weather stations publishing their data online, she just had to pick the right one and convert the temperature and moisture information into something she could draw.  
"GOT THAT BUGGER!"  
Rose dropped a pencil, which fell tip-down straight into her bare foot.  
"MOM?"  
"It worked! It worked, finally! It's perfect, it's working and..." Mom danced into Mina's room and saw Rose holding her foot. "And I'll give you a plaster. What happened?"  
"Ah" Rose grimaced. "I dropped my pencil. And it was freshly sharpened, too."  
Mom scrunched her nose.  
"Ouch. Sorry. I startled you?"  
"A _bit_ " Rose pulled off her sock and surveyed the hole. "It's like five millimetres deep" she said with fascination. "And it's black."  
"It's the pencil, I suppose. OK, plasters, antiseptic. And then... what's the time, eight? We can still go and do something. At least grocery shopping. I feel like celebrating."

#

Foot cleaned and dressed, Rose changed her socks and pulled on the trainers. Mom was already waiting, a tote in hand, oversized purse over her shoulder.  
"Come on, let's buy something silly. I have a sudden craving for strawberry yogurt. After sitting in front of that screen for the last two days, I feel like some kind of vampire. I need something _red_."  
After small negotiations and discussion of distance vs. items offered, they decided to brave the public transport and go to Tesco. Rose pushed the trolley and offered input on options Mom presented, while Mom browsed, searched and in general seemed to be powered by enormous amounts of nervous energy.  
"Tea, milk, yogurt, butter, lettuce, tomatoes, fish - and don't make that face, young lady, you know I can make it edible - carrots, yellow beans... maybe fava beans, hm?"  
"Fava beans are fine" Rose provided, trying to guess the dish that would be the outcome of that combination.  
"Aaand some garlic, and..."  
By the time they were done, the totes were full to bursting and Mom was slowly sipping an ice-cold ginger lemon soda.  
"Lord, I needed this" she said finally. "Now. Home, unpack, and you, into bed, immediately. I needed this, but it was stupid to keep you out that late, I'm sorry. I'll make sure you have a reasonable breakfast ready tomorrow."  
Rose could only smile and nod. She was tired and slightly sleepy, but it was good to see Mom acting _normally_ and not like an obsessed housekeeper trying to polish all the surfaces into high sheen.

#

Wednesday started early, despite the previous late evening. Mom's promised breakfast turned out to be crepes with white cottage cheese and bilberries - weird, but good. And, chased down by a cup of milky tea, definitely satisfying. They hugged minutely as Rose was leaving the bathroom and Mom was just checking if she had actually packed her lunch box.  
"When you're back, I may still be sleeping" Mom yawned. "Or I may be out, I'll have to take the invoice to them in person."  
"No problem. I'll start on the homework and if you have time, maybe... could we watch something? On your screen?"  
"Sure. You want me to pick something new? Or from the shelf?"  
Rose pecked her cheek.  
"No idea. I'll see after school."  
"Just text me if you want me to buy a new one."

####

_When Elizabeth entered the flat, something was off. Yes, Mina's backpack was in its usual place, and her shoes were gleaming just next to her slightly scuffed trainers. There was no sound coming from the flat, however, and Mina **always**_ _made a lot of noise, from scratching of her chair legs on the floor to talking at her laptop or even her phone._  
_She found her daughter curled up on her bed, face to the wall, one leg stretched out and both arms around a pillow._  
_"Kitten? What's wrong?"_  
_"School is stupid."_  
_She smothered a snort._  
_"What happened?"_  
_"We were..." the girl began. "History. We were talking about stuff that people keep at home - old documents, pictures. And then there was a discussion about our families and where they are from."_  
_Elizabeth's heart sank._  
_"Oh, dear. What happened?"_  
_"We were... There was an exercise to fill in our family tree. So I put in all of us, and aunt Jane, and the kids, and everyone. And grandma, and grandpa. And then someone started... to laugh, that my tree is just half of the tree and that I should get a prosthesis for the other half, or it will fall down. And Mrs Sykes tried to make them shut up, but she is like, our size, and can't really shout, so they just kept... saying these things."_  
_Elizabeth toed off her shoes and sat on the bed cross-legged, pulling her daughter's head into her lap._  
_"I'm sorry, darling. I think sometimes that the teachers are not exactly our allies in this. At least Mrs Sykes tried, didn't she?"_  
_"Yes. And she patted my hand and said that she was sorry, but it's in the program."_  
_"She probably can't do much about it, yes."_  
_The girl nodded._  
_"Mom?"_  
_"Yes, kitten?"_  
_"Why... what happened to you and father? Why didn't it... work out?"_  
_Elizabeth felt her arms grow heavy._  
_"This is..."_  
_"Please? I really need to understand..."_  
_She sighed._

####

Mom was sitting on her bed, fingers in her hair massaging her scalp slowly.  
"Your Dad and I... we were much too young. We thought we were so old - me at twenty, him at twenty eight, we felt positively _ancient_. And here comes the first part of the problem - the age gap. I was a student who just got a rather attractive scholarship and he was a businessman, working hard on his company and its place on the market. I was very busy writing my dissertation and trying to attend as many classes as I could, and suddenly there were _people_ expecting that since I'm his girlfriend now, I should give up my university degree and play the hostess to his various business associates. I most definitely didn't feel like taking on such a responsibility. My people organisational skills are well known. I can barely get my sisters to bring the agreed-on dishes to a party. Setting up a party, for strangers and on the level of money, nope. No way."  
"Who were these people?" Rose asked softly.  
"A few wifes of his contractors, and customers... very high society, much more money spent in a month that my whole scholarship and noses permanently set in a sneer. He was trying to find his place then, and the amount of people he was meeting was... astounding. I was barely there for most of these events - had to submit assignments, write reports, normal uni stuff _and_ write updates on my progress to the foundation that paid for my education."  
"So, what happened?"  
Mom sniffed.  
"His aunt happened. She arrived - for whatever reason that was at the time, I couldn't be bothered to actually understand the details at the time - and happily stepped in. And I was _cool_ with it. Someone did the big, annoying meetings, I didn't have to spend time arguing about invoices and trying to understand the vast political difference between canapes and tartines. My only input, from time to time, was to ensure that the menu included something for 'othereaters', like vegetarian or sugar-free, because I _heard_ people complaining about that. She wasn't happy with the interference, so I tried not to intrude. And then she removed me from the equation - I still have no idea how - by having the parties set up on the days when either I had an early morning next day or I had a study evening. I suppose it was just easy, my days were full to the brim. I stopped going, even when I actually wanted to attend - it was silly to arrive at nine and leave at eleven - like a kid who has to turn in early. It was easier not to go at all."  
"But why did you let her do this?"  
"Because she was much better at it than I ever could be. And it was the way the business was done - networking, making connections, making 'friends' with others in the same area. And I couldn't really oppose her - I'd have to pick up the duty then. Basically, there was only one time I managed to effectively stop her from encroaching on our life..."  
_Someone actually standing up to Aunt C? Perfect!_  
"What did you do?"  
"Well, I didn't really _do_ all that much. She had an idea, which she never consulted with either me or your father, to set up some drinks evening at his flat - which I was living in, with him. And I... didn't let her in. I had flu, and the idea of various important businessmen milling around in _my_ place when I'm sick, listening to how I'm throwing up everything, up to the last Christmas dinner didn't sit very well with me."  
"What was she thinking? I mean, how did she even... why would she invite anyone like this, to _your_ flat?"  
"In her mind, it was her nephew's flat, and I was just a temporary element in it. She probably thought she'd be able to simply roll over me and do it the way she liked. Well, she didn't have the keys, she didn't have the security code and I didn't have time to listen to her making noise, because I ran to the toilet to be rather violently sick."  
"So she was there, with the guests, and what?"  
"Not with the guests, thankfully, but with the guys from catering. Still, the guests were supposed to follow any minute, so she was really pressed for time."  
Rose nodded slowly. That did sound like Aunt C, to the last frustrating detail.  
"And what did... _he_ do?"  
"Fortunately she called him at last, and he wasn't happy with the situation, and he definitely wasn't willing to give her the security codes. Redirected the party to conference rooms not far from the flat, rented last minute at some crazy cost, and once the people knew where they were supposed to be, he came home to check on me."  
"And what were you doing?"  
"Well, after being thoroughly ill, I fell asleep and apparently looked poorly enough to warrant calling an ambulance. They gave me fluids and then soundly told off your father for not taking care of his pregnant girlfriend" Mom smiled slightly. "Well, he did shut down his aunt effectively after that. There were no more parties during the week, no more late evenings and definitely no more surprises in our flat. But then he brought up the topic of marriage and... she started meddling in that. She started talking about a prenup. I might have said something to the effect of 'over my dead body'. And we fought about it, him and me. He couldn't understand why I can't just sign the stupid piece of paper - he was quite sure we wouldn't be getting divorced anyway, so whatever was there wouldn't apply. I was rather firm on the position that I'm not signing anything that looks like them accusing me of just being in it for the money. I'm afraid at some point a suggestion of me catching him with the pregnancy might have been added to the whole mess. And... then you were born, and we argued at the hospital, because his aunt swanned in with her 'traditional' and 'proper' ideas for baby names. Of course, I wasn't having any of that. She wasn't naming any baby of mine, no way. And here I was, eight hours after delivery, your father barely standing, me after three days on next to no sleep, you howling... and her, starting about the stupid prenup again! I think the hospital still remembers the shouting row I had with her and your father walking her out of the door."  
Mom sighed and closed her eyes.  
"Mom?"  
"Yes, Mina?"  
"What's a prenup?"  
Elizabeth chuckled.  
"That's a very old-fashioned idea - or one used in much richer society than I had ever kept. People who get married would sign a contract saying how much money the woman would get if they ever divorced."  
Rose frowned.  
"So, like, she was _expecting_ you to split up? And didn't want you to get _what_?"  
"She _said_ she didn't want your father to lose money if I ever left him. Usually, had we been married, and then got divorced, the judges would say I'm going to get some portion of what he earned during our marriage, just because I was married to him. The prenup was supposed to say that each of us would have completely separate accounts and everything and that I would contribute to the upkeep of the house in an equal amount. Which was rubbish, because, I'm afraid, the difference in the money earned by a part-time employed student and a real estate entrepreneur was rather... big. And the house - because by that time, we'd moved to his country house - was huge. So I said I can contribute if we continue to live in the flat in town, because this is what I signed up for - when we met, I didn't _know_ he had a bl-big mansion in the country, and a whole property around it! Charlie never told me his best friend was the owner of like, half the bloody shire!"  
"MOM!"  
"Oh, damn" Elizabeth hid her face in a her hands. "I'm sorry, darling. This whole... I mean, I... Oh, God."  
She raked her hair with both hands nervously.  
"You see, ducky. You live with me, here, in a flat I rent from my parents. And your father is, yes, that's true, owner of like half of a shire. I... I probably should have known better, but I just fell in love, you see. And then I felt like an intruder, like something that attached itself to that fabulous, wealthy family and I felt like just... just an interloper. I don't want to disparage them all - there were some very nice people on that side. But I was a poor scholarship student of computer engineering and programming, while he was earning enough money to fund twenty such scholarships from pocket change. I'm still not sure why he ever actually noticed me, you see. At the beginning, for all the meetings and events I was just there with Charlie and Jane, along for a ride, because aunt Jane felt better if I went with her. And then she got sick, and Charles was waiting on her hand and foot, at our own tiny flat, and I was kind of left to my own devices, so I started talking to that _friend_ of his when they came visiting, and then it just... progressed. And then, suddenly, I found myself with an extended family, overblown expectations, trying to finish my degree, four o'clock feedings and a heap of other things, and his aunt _harping_ about that stupid prenup. And I snapped. One day I just couldn't take it anymore. I packed what I thought I could take, I left what I thought I should leave and... I came home. Here. Your grandparents were rather unhappy with how the whole situation was resolved, but I stood firm and told them there is no way I'm going to stay in contact with someone who expects me to try to cheat him out of his money. My supervisor was moving south anyway, so it was easier in a way…”  
Rose sat up on the bed, looking at her mother's shaking shoulders in absolute silence.  
_Left what I thought I should leave_ she repeated in her mind. _She means me. She took Mina and left me, because she... what?_  
"Why did you leave me?" she blurted out and saw her mother go white as a sheet.

 

####

 

_When Elizabeth managed to drink a second glass of water and stop shaking, they sat on the kitchen floor and looked at each other._  
_"However stupid it will sound... It was because of the name" she said finally. "I had this fixation I could only take one of you - it wasn't fair to anyone, but that way at least I felt I wasn't cheating William out of both of you. And Mina is named after him, you know. You saw her documents, so you know her full name is Wilhelmina."_  
_Rose frowned._  
_"And me? You didn't like my name so much?"_  
_Elizabeth chuckled weakly._  
_"Darling, your name was chosen by your father. He thought it appropriate to name you after me. My second name is Rosalinde. Elizabeth Rosalinde Bennet. I decided to take Mina with me to remind me of him - and, and to leave you... to remind him of me. I wasn't thinking very clearly, of course. I stopped at the first gas station I came across and sat in my car for half an hour, crying. Mina woke up and cried too, and I thought she might be feeling being separated from you, but I just couldn't go back - I even thought about it, to leave her, too, but I couldn't force myself. I knew that if I did, his aunt - and I meant aunt Catherine, yes - would do everything to take you both away. This way, I at least got to keep Mina..."_  
_Rose pursed her lips._  
_"I'm not sure I can... I can forgive you" she said slowly. "I'm sorry, Mom, but I don't understand it. Why didn't you stay? Why didn't you fight for us all?"_  
_Elizabeth leaned back on the cupboard and laughed softly, Rose looking at her with a frown._  
_"I did, darling. You were more than a year old by the time I left. Actually, it was the day after your birthday. The day I felt that even one more evening in the company of my supposed in-laws and I will hurt someone - or myself. There was only one person in that house that wasn't actively working against me, and I'm afraid to say it wasn't your father."_  
_Rose shivered._  
_"Dad wouldn't..."_  
_"We were past the point when we were on speaking terms by that day. I know - I understand he is a good father, I can see he brought you up to be a very fine young woman. But he wasn't..." she sighed. "I don't want to disparage him, darling. But he wasn't a very forgiving person, neither of us was. And he certainly had some very specific notions about one's life aims. I was taking care of you both and, in between, trying to finish my degree. He couldn't understand it. He thought it didn't make sense for me to focus on my degree so much when I should be taking care of you. Suggestions of me being in the wrong specialisation were also thrown in. Specifically, the un-female-ness of it."_  
_Rose's brows rose._  
_"Really? Dad said crap like this?"_  
_"Rose!"_  
_"Well, it is crap!"_  
_"Well, he did say this. And many other things, I'm afraid. And I wasn't easy to talk to, either. I got so angry and so... convinced of my absolute right to do what I planned, and the obvious, objective soundness of my plans that I never took enough time to explain to him why I was doing it. For me, I suddenly saw him as still stuck mentally in like, the nineteenth century, thinking I could just be a wife and a mother and be happy with it. I think it might have been aunt Catherine's doing - she was promoting Anne as his perfect wife all that time... He didn't get married to her, did he?" she suddenly looked at her daughter with dread._  
_"No" Rose grimaced. "But Mina says she's making some moves and she doesn't like her. I mean, Mina doesn't like aunt Anne. Aunt Anne basically doesn't like kids at all."_  
_Elizabeth nodded and wiped her nose with a paper towel._  
_"I'm sorry you had to hear this" she said finally. "But I think you're big enough to understand. Not all love goes the right way. We were so idiotically in love we never saw the reality around us. I'm afraid we weren't even in love with the actual proper persons, just with our expectations of them. And then, once the reality came knocking, it turned out that this love was not enough to keep us together in the face of that reality."_  
_"Does this mean it's all aunt Catherine's fault?" Rose asked with a bit of hope._  
_"I'm afraid, ducky, it was everyone's fault. Your aunt's, mine, your father's. We all made our mistakes and now Mina and you have to live with the outcome, and I'm very sorry."_  
_"Mom?"_  
_"Yes?"_  
_"Who was that one person who was not working against you in the house?"_  
_Elizabeth patted Rose's hand._  
_"Your aunt Georgiana. You know - she is ten years younger than your father, so I was actually closer in age to her than to him. And she knew she wanted to graduate and work on her degree, so she sometimes came to me to tell her what it is like at the university. I really appreciated her support. I remember she started university just before you two were born, but I'm not sure what she did after I..."_  
_"She's got a degree" Rose smiled. "Musicology, or something like this. She writes articles about old harps and clavichords and so on. And she plays them all, too. Sometimes when they find some very special instrument in some old church, or whatever, they call her to come and check what it is and if it can be made to work. Last spring she spent three months on an organ in one of the churches, because the parish council wanted just to replace it and sell the old one for scrap metal."_  
_"Wow. So she is actually doing what she planned to do. I wonder how she managed it."_  
_Rose shrugged one-shoulderly._  
_"Not sure. But Dad never told **me** not to study, and when I started falling behind after my appendix he sat with me for days, helping me with the material. And he even got me a tutor for physics, because he said he didn't have a good head for this stuff, so he didn't want me to be more confused - after he tried explaining it to me once."_  
_"That was... thoughtful of him. And" Elizabeth smiled slightly "what are your plans for later? After school?"_  
_"Well, I want to be a garden architect. So Dad said that I'd need at least a bachelor in landscape architecture then, for this to make sense. And he actually found a school in the Netherlands that is supposedly the best in Europe. I'm going to start Dutch next year."_  
_Elizabeth made an appreciative face._  
_"He did change quite a bit since... well."_  
_"You mean he is no longer a tenth-century Neanderthal male, yes? This is what aunt Georgiana called him the last time he said something about a woman racecar driver. He went all red and choked on his coffee and she laughed for the whole breakfast."_  
_"Well. Seems he still has some progress in front of him."_  
_Rose sniffed._  
_"What are you going to do with me now?"_  
_Elizabeth groaned._  
_"I suppose we should switch you two back, shouldn't we?"_  
_"Yep" Rose grimaced. "Before I mess up Mina's grades even worse - and she mine."_  
_"God. That's why you had all these problems..."_  
_"And Mina is afraid father would expect to see her on a horse any day now” Rose added. "So I'd rather get there sometime soon before she manages to do something to my mare."_  
_Elizabeth shuddered theatrically._  
_"OK. So. Ground rules, until I manage to think how to undo this unholy mess. Point one, we don't tell grandma. She would blow her gasket and that would be nasty. Point two, you try the best at school and I'll talk to your teachers and explain that you'll be taking remedial Italian for some time, just to get you up to speed. This should relieve some pressure. What is it that you were taking, actually?"_  
_"French."_  
_"Of course. Bloody D'Arcys."_  
_Rose frowned._  
_"What?"_  
_"Sorry, dear. That was... kind of a long thing. But I always wanted to learn Italian - and I did, it's not like I'm living vicariously through Mina - because 'Bennets' come from 'Benitos', some old Italian family. And when W- your father heard about it, we had the most draining discussion **ever** , because his family - your family - is not just 'Darcy', it's 'D'Arcy', and they are of French origin. He claimed it is much more useful to learn French than Italian. I think it took us three days or so to just stop mentioning this. We never agreed on it, of course. Therefore, Mina is now probably making your French grades as bad as you made her Italian ones."_  
_"You really did argue that much?"_  
_Elizabeth sighed and combed her hair back both-handed._  
_How to explain to a fourteen-year-old, with all her life in front of her, with all her options open, how grownups can mess up their lives by simply not talking properly about things? How her father - whom the kid obviously loves - had nearly managed to smother her mother's drive for education, just simply by putting her into an age-old position of a **mother**? Even worse, a mother with next to no support from her surroundings?_  
_How to describe, without making said father into a monster, how she had spent entire nights in the twins' bedroom, with a laptop on her knees, trying to work on the last part of her thesis project, while her milk leaked, her hormones were all over the place and she was falling on her face with exhaustion?_  
_How to say "your great-aunt is a witch and your aunt is a creepy piece of work that shouldn't be let near honest people" without actually saying it?_  
_How to say "I cried on the floor of your bedroom when you were asleep, because nobody else ever came there anyway, so nobody noticed"?_  
_"We did, I'm afraid" she said finally. "I was depressed - despite it being a known problem in general, not many doctors identified a postpartum depression and even less would treat it. At least the ones that I was seeing treated it as me griping about the normal way the things were, and not as a real illness. I was barely functioning, and I tried juggling my thesis, you and W-William" she swallowed, saying his name for the first time in thirteen years "and because William was the only one that I could argue with, he took the brunt of my emotions. And he was never one to back down, so..." she shrugged. "I felt defeated, finally. Him, the bl--stupid prenup, aunt Catherine, the house and my degree - I could only manage one thing at a time. I'm not really defending my choice, mind you. I could have taken both of you, probably. I just didn't think I could cope with dealing with the two of you completely alone, without even the scant help Mrs Reynolds provided when she could."_  
_Rose sighed._  
_"I don't like this" she said finally._  
_"Neither do I, ducky" Elizabeth sat next to her and pulled her into a hug. "But that is what happened, and I can't really undo it now. I can only hope we can communicate with him amicably and exchange the two of you with a minimal amount of fuss."_  
_"I hope we could, like, meet sometimes. Later, you know. Like, maybe you two could come to Lambton during Christmas? And see the fair, and the decorations, and stuff?"_  
_"Or you two could come to London, you know. See a play or go shopping with us?"_  
_Rose nodded slowly and pressed herself to Elizabeth._  
_"I still don't understand how the two of you could do and say all that stuff to each other and manage to stay in one room long enough to actually make babies, you know. You will have to work on some better answers. But not necessarily today."_  
_"I hope you've had enough Sex Ed to know that actually making babies doesn't require talking during the deed" Elizabeth couldn't really stop herself, until she saw Rose's dark-red blush. "But, really" she sighed. "I loved him then. I thought... he was funny and warm, and he never said anything about me being too short, or too weird. He commented sometimes on the fact that I was on an engineering track, but at the time it seemed benign, much less biting than I'd been hearing at the uni anyway. Only later..." she paused "it started to grow. But earlier, oh, at the beginning we were like these two idiots. He fell first, completely, but managed to talk himself into being sooo uninterested in me. And I thought he was just Charles' stuck-up friend, so I kind of ignored him for a while - especially since he managed to insult my musical taste at our second meeting. But on the other hand, I'd been hearing stories of 'Will, my best mate since first day at the uni' and the rugby games when William helped Charlie to train for speed, instead for just pure muscle mass - you know how uncle Charles is a bit on the wiry side, and your father, well..."_  
_"Yes" Rose managed to whisper._  
_"So he helped Charles with his training, to make sure he could stay on the team. And then he invited Charles for weekends to join him at Pemberley, instead of being stuck at the dormitory. Because it was the time when Charles' sisters did something absolutely idiotic that almost cost them their family house. And then Will helped Charles with some legal proceedings that got the house back - and blocked the sisters from mortgaging it again, or whatever it was that they did. So, basically, by the time Jane and Charlie met, Will was Charles' superhero. He didn't seem like much to me, mind you. Suits, usually some very posh accessories, like cuff links, a pen, this kind of thing. But he always looked bored with everything that happened around him - sitting in the corner, looking at everyone, standing by the window and staring outside. And one day..." she rubbed her eyes. "One day he asked me something. About a book that was on a table next to me. I explained that it's not mine, as I can't stand poetry, and we started talking about literature. Turned out he appreciated good crime story, but not horrors, historical fiction but not autobiographies, and so on. We weren't completely compatible because I love a good romance now and then and he hates all things "lovey", and I can't stand war stories and he can spend hours analysing one battle or another. But it was more than enough to spark a discussion. Then there were vacations and I wanted to spend as much time as I could on writing my thesis and my temporary job, before Charles' and Jane's wedding, and we drifted a bit apart, but being the best man and the maid of honour we simply had to meet almost every other day during preparation. So in autumn we quickly found each other to be quite interesting, again, and by the time of the wedding I couldn't understand how I hadn't loved him before..."_  
_Rose was curled up in her mother's lap at that moment, eyes wide open and looking at Elizabeth's drawn face._  
_"Maybe that was why - we never had time to actually get to know each other. Either I was busy, or he, or both of us, and when we had time, we didn't really talk about ourselves, just, mostly, either we bickered about books, laughed at Jane and Charles or..." she blushed._  
_"I **had** Sex Ed, Mom."_  
_"Well, then. And then Will's Aunt Catherine arrived, with her daughter in tow, and when she understood we were living together, she started her campaign. Which, after two years, ended with..."_  
_"You here and Dad there. And Mina and me not knowing the other one existed for thirteen years."_  
_"I'm afraid so."_  
_Rose closed her eyes and sniffed._  
_"What are we going to do now?"_  
_Elizabeth sighed and combed her hair away from her face._  
_"I will have to call uncle Charles and then" she shrugged. "We'll have to take a trip. But not today, definitely."_  
_"Not today."_

####

Mom was sitting in the kitchen, nursing her tea, looking rather tired. Rose couldn't really force herself to leave her alone but neither wanted to start another conversation, as every attempt quickly dwindled to apologies, explanations and sobs. Each of them had already cried twice - and in case of Rose, been reduced to snot and tears - so they gave each other as much space as they could while still keeping the other in sight.  
The pillow on the floor of the tiny corridor between the kitchen and the bathroom was adequate for Rose for the time being and each could raise her head and look and nod at the other silently if they wished.  
Rose's phone buzzed.  
"Yeah?"  
"Rose?"  
Mina had been crying.  
"What's wrong?" she stood up, frowning. "What happened?"  
"Can you talk now?"  
She glanced at Mom, who was watching her in surprise.  
"Yes, just... give me a moment..."  
She sighed, looked at Mom and nodded towards her room. In seconds, she was behind the door and listening intently to her sister's sniffles.  
"What is going on?"  
"Aunt... aunt Catherine..."  
"What is she doing?"  
"She..." Mina sobbed and Rose could hear a tissue being pulled from a box. "She said I was a mistake. I mean, that you... that we were a mistake!"  
"What the hell..."  
"She was talking to Anne, but she is, like, half-deaf, so she doesn't even know how loudly she shouts. So I heard her through the window, and she was telling all these old stupid things, like I am - you are..."  
"I know. Useless, too muscled, too stupid, too everything. By the way, forgot to tell you - grandma also thinks girls shouldn't have bulging muscles."  
"At least grandma never told me Mom should have sent me away, or given me up" Mina said quietly. "And aunt Catherine said exactly this. She said 'if William had got rid of her in time, it would have been easier for you both'. And that because he was busy with you, he lost business opportunities and Anne didn't manage to snag him when he was young and stupid."  
Rose felt herself choking.  
"She said _that_ , like, literally?"  
"Well, among other stuff. Like, that Anne was still young and could have babies, if she applied herself. And that she should show more interest in Dad. And that if they managed to send me - you - to some actual boarding school, Anne would have better chances with him. And that he should have sent you to Mom the moment she left, and not keep you and take care of you himself. And that you - me, whatever - were a waste of time and money and Anne should focus on making sure she pops out some babies that could properly inherit the Darcy fortune."  
"You're kidding."  
"Unfortunately, mostly quoting."  
"What the hell caused this? Did something happen? Dad proposed to her maybe?"  
"No, Dad didn't do anything out of everyday. He asked me about school a lot, today morning, and I kind of had to be evasive, because the report card is coming next week and I don't think he will be happy..."  
"God, what did you do?"  
"Maybe your math grades will need much more fixing than we expected..."  
Rose groaned.  
"And maybe the PE condition test went a bit poorer than the last one..."  
"And...?"  
"And you might have forgotten to tell me that there was a book to be read over the vacation and I didn't read it..."  
"So, Dad tried to talk to you about school and you did what?"  
Mina stayed silent.  
"Mina, what _did_ you do?"  
"I told him I punched Ray and that the headmaster wants to talk to him."  
"You did _what_?!"  
"I punched Ray. He was picking on some little kids from the primary and taking their change. I think he might have collected like three quid in total, but he was _hitting_ them. So I gave him a black eye, and the headmaster said that because it's my - your - first offence, he's letting me tell Dad in my own time, but it will be in the report card anyway, so..."  
"You hit Ray the idiot. Raymond, the one who pins girls' braids to their chairs and who can't tell his chewing gum from his eraser?"  
"Yes."  
"He is mostly meat..."  
"He also has eyes, and I hit him in one."  
"So you told Dad you hit a boy and..."  
"He kind of choked on his coffee."  
"And aunt Catherine?"  
Mina was silent for a moment, again, and Rose dropped to her bed, stretching on the blanket.  
"Little sister..."  
"She started ranting about me being a dishonour to the family name. I don't know how she does it - one second calmly drinking tea, next she's going fifty miles per hour, foaming at the mouth and spitting."  
"Apparently we both have something that makes her take her mental foot off the brakes. OK, now. We know perfectly well that Dad loves us - at least, you know. Me. But you too, I'm sure. And you know what? If Aunt Catherine thinks that me being there all these years is what blocked aunt Anne..."  
Mina snorted wetly.  
"Then I think it's quite good. Imagine what these two would have done if you hadn't not here."  
"Which means, basically, that it's not _me_ who is a mistake. Or rather, we aren't _Dad's_ mistake."  
"No, no. Different accent, big sister. You weren't his _mistake_. You were his _best defence_."  
They sat in silence for a moment.  
"Let's just make sure we stay in that role, OK?"  
"I get kind of a feeling that boarding school would be a very, very bad idea right now."  
"If someone brings up the idea in a definite way, go tell Dad about the switch. First, they'll have to switch us back and then anyway it will be a mess, so there will be no time to send me there. But don't just blurt it out, OK?"  
Mina sniffed.  
"You and Mom OK?"  
Rose watched the shadows dancing on the ceiling of Mina's room for a moment.  
"Rose?"  
"I... Yeah, it's good. But she told me how they had split and I'm afraid our parents are idiots."  
"From what aunt Georgiana told me, they were both very much in love. And then started arguing and one day, when we were a year old, she disappeared. Obviously, aunt G didn't mention her having disappeared with the other kid."  
"She told me..." Rose licked her lips. "She told me that Dad..."  
"Rose?"  
"She told me she was so tired she stopped thinking. And that Dad wasn't helping with us. And that she just couldn't take it anymore."  
"Rose? What did you tell her? _Did_ you, like, _tell_ her, tell her?"  
Rose felt the silence stretch like a slowly pulled elastic.  
"Yeah" she said finally. "But she doesn't want to switch us back immediately, you know. I mean, she knows she should, but... She said she will talk to the teachers about changing some classes, to make sure your grades don't take a hit, too much."  
"She wants to keep you to herself longer" Mina concluded quietly. "Good. I really need more time to work out what happened _here_ , before they have to meet. We have to be properly prepared for... whatever happens."  
"Yeah. If you learn anything, text me immediately. Anytime."  
"You the same. Now, details. What else did Mom tell you?"  
"Well... Basically, sista, we're a bit... Theyarenotmarried."  
"WHAT!?"  
"Geez, Mina!"  
"Sorry. But _what_? That means that Anne could... she could just... I mean, really, she... Oh, God, I'm gonna be _sick_. Ugh. No. That means he's, like, single. Yes? So if Anne and aunt Catherine press hard enough..."  
"Use the switch then. I mean it. Mom is fine for the time being, I think she's just trying to gather her courage. I _may_ have been a bit whiny today, so she's a bit worried. But if... if they bring up the topic again, in any way, I mean, if Dad says _anything_ that looks like he's agreeing, tell him _at once_. Clear?"  
Mina made a small sound of acceptance.  
"What did Dad say when aunt C went off the handle? Did he say anything like, that he agrees with her?"  
Mina snorted.  
"No. He actually, you know, put down his paper, folded it, wiped some coffee off it and asked, all calm and cool 'Did you tuck the thumb in? You shouldn't tuck the thumb in, imp, it's the shortest way to breaking it. Let me show you later how to do it properly.'"  
"Wow."  
"Yeah. And aunt C just... shut up suddenly."  
"If you can get him alone tomorrow - or even today, but it's getting late - try to..." Rose chewed her lip for a moment "can you get him to tell you what the hell is the business with aunt Catherine? Because I'm not saying she is the villain in this fairy tale, but she is definitely meddling like crazy."  
"I will _try_ , but it seems like there is this big thing between them that nobody ever mentions. How did you manage to live with them all that time? I mean, Anne is mostly quiet, but aunt Catherine..."  
Rose sighed.  
"Dad usually deflected her craziest ideas... and mostly, she was anyway criticising _him_. Everything, from the way the company is run, how the house is maintained, down to the way he manages the money for the charity. Including trying to get involved in the way the money is distributed by that charity. I think she had started on aunt Georgiana and me more recently, maybe last year? When I started failing physics, and she was trying to make something of it, Dad just said that if she wanted to blame anyone, she should blame him, because he was the one who didn't explain it well enough to me."  
"Now I'm really curious. OK, the moment I get him alone..."

#

When Rose emerged from the bedroom twenty minutes later, Mom was sitting on the sofa, reading some kind of craft glossy. She took off her glasses and put away the paper as soon as she saw her daughter.  
"Was it Mina?" she asked quietly.  
Rose nodded.  
"Something happened?"  
"Kind of" Rose flopped on her back on the sofa, putting her head in her Mom's lap. "She heard aunt Catherine being nasty."  
"You mean, she was speaking?"  
"Well, louder than normally, but, in essence, yes. She said stuff about me - and, well, in fact, Mina - that I suppose I would have been used to. Mina isn't. Anyway, it's all fine now."  
"We'll have to work on switching you back at some point, darling" Mom's fingers brush through her hair. "When were you planning on telling us, hm?"  
"Halloween" Rose mumbled, eyes closed. "We were planning... to just dress as ourselves..." she hesitated. "And if someone asked us who we were dressed as, I'd say 'Mina' and she'd say 'Rose'. And then we were kind of hoping to take photos of how everyone would work through that."  
Mom's hand in her hair stilled for a moment and she snorted.  
"Oh, you clever little devils. 'Mina', sure. Grandma would have thought you were _mental_."  
"Not like she has a very good opinion about me _now_."  
"Oh, you are not alone in _that_. How do you two even keep this straight? I mean, this... this life is completely different from Derbyshire, isn't it? Which school do you go to, Lambton Secondary? Don't tell me she's being tortured by these infernal little twits at the public school at the other end of the town..."  
"Well, she isn't. I resisted the last time aunt Catherine and aunt Anne tried mentioning it, and Dad said that being educated in a single-sex environment won't give me any benefits."  
"Good for you. I remember meeting some girls that graduated from that one when I was out there. Some were in part of my classes at uni. Ghastly. I suppose that it didn't change much, schools tend to ossify in their methods and traditions."  
"Well, I know some of them from my ballet classes and they are a bunch of stuck-up, patronising airheads."  
"Which means that nothing had changed. So, how _do_ you keep this isolated? The you that you were, you-being-Mina, Mina-being-you?"  
Rose shrugged.  
"I know what I did, she knows what she did. We know that any general opinion someone has, like grandma now, is really aimed at the original one. Anything specific, that is because of it happening _now_ is aimed at the one that is here. Mina... Mina heard aunt Catherine saying big, general things about _me_ , but that was because of something that _she_ did today."  
Mom's hand stilled at her temple.  
"When did you two manage to grow up so much?"  
"When you were not looking, I suppose."  
She felt a hot droplet fall on her forehead.  
"Can I call her? I... Well, I don't know _your_ number."

####

Mina was trying to sleep, but it wasn't happening.  
The contest.  
Hearing Aunt Catherine.  
Dad's totally cool reaction.  
Possible repercussions for Rose at school.  
_Dad still didn't come back from school._  
_Rose **told** Mom._  
Her phone buzzed.

SUSAN

"Rose?"  
"Mina?"  
She felt her heart actually, literally, skip a beat.  
"Mom... Mom, I'm so sorry, I, we..."  
"Rose told me. Love, do... I have to think for a moment, all right? I will call your f-father, but, not today. Will you be OK for a day or two more?"  
"Mommy" she whispered tiredly. "I will. But I think we won't make it until Halloween then, will we?"  
"No, kitten, you won't. I think we have to undo this as soon as possible. Just give me a moment to get used to the idea."  
"But, oh, Mom. I... Gosh, Rose will kill me!"  
Mom actually giggled.  
"Why?"  
"I might have signed up for a singing contest... I thought I'd be here another five weeks, and then the competition would have been done and she'd have at least one positive thing on her record..."  
"I think, kitten, that the competition is less important than dealing with this mess promptly. Now, go to sleep, and I will try to psych myself up to... to dealing with this. I'm sorry you two had to go through this, Mina. I..." Mom sighed. "I should have been a better mother. I promise I will try to do better now."  
"Mom" Mina said softly. "Don't worry. I... I think waiting until the weekend won't do any damage, will it?"  
She heard something on the other end of the connection that sounded like Rose's frantic whisper.  
Mom gasped.  
"Really? How did you two... No, no, definitely. No! It was fifteen minutes...! Mina? One important message, right now: You are _fifteen_ minutes younger than her. Do you hear me? Fifteen. Dear God, which one of you thought it was a whole _day_?!"  
Mina laughed weakly.  
"Love you, kitten. Don't forget about it. I love you both, yes, Rose. Now, Mina. Sleep. It will be over soon. Just let me handle this, OK?"  
"Yes, Mom" she mumbled, falling back on her pillow. "Love you. And Rose."  
Fifteen minutes later, as she was dozing shallowly, the phone buzzed again.

_From: Susan_  
_To: Rose_  
_We don't have much time left to get the other side of this crap. Aunt G doesn't know. Try Dad, if you can. Once they switch us back, who knows if they'll ever tell us the whole thing._

####

_The house was dark when he came back._  
_He had actually left school very early - twenty minutes with the headmaster gave him the whole picture he needed. Rose was standing up for smaller kids. The way she did it wasn't exactly deemed perfectly appropriate, but nobody - except for young Raymond's parents - could say anything negative about her **intent**._  
_A quick agreement between the involved parties was reached and Rose was given three weeks to produce a poster regarding correct reporting of bullying to the school authorities, while Ray had been suspended for the rest of the week and banned from entering the parts of the schoolyard dedicated to younger students and from attending the school Halloween party._  
_It was a satisfying outcome for everyone - of course, except for Raymond._  
_His study was quiet and pleasantly cool, so he opened the slightly creaky window to let in even more of the evening air and sat at his desk._  
_**Rose.** _  
_The sooner the new house was built, the better. The old arrangement was only valid as long as he lived at Pemberley, after all. The paperwork for all the needed historical restoration had been speedily processed and approved, the budget for the new house was calculated and allocated for the current year and the next one and everything was underway to ensure that by that time next year they would be free._  
_He thanked whichever power had sent him that flash of inspiration in July. The new house would resolve so many problems at once._  
_He pulled out the long list he had made with his lawyer team. Almost all points were marked as completed and with the grounds of the new house being formally separated from ones belonging to the old mansion and a boundary markers set that very afternoon, he could safely check off another line._  
_He had been a naive, sentimental and easily manipulated fool._  
_No more._  
_A smirk widened his lips as he typed an answer to Charles' e-mail with the new calculation of cost and effectiveness of the newest model of solar panels._

Charlie,

You have my authorisation to pick the last generation available. Attached are calculations of total roof surface and sections of the southern wall that I want to cover.  
Hardcopy of authorisation will be sent tomorrow morning. Please expedite and make provisional arrangement for installation for July.

Regards

W.

_His eyes wandered back to the old contract opened flat next to the keyboard._  
_**Honour as your own.** _  
_He ground his teeth just a bit._  
_He should have known better than to enter into any business with relatives._  
_He managed to resist a repetition ever since. Richard had **not** been hired, despite his uncle's repeated requests. Matthew was told to take his fabulous deal to someone **else**. His uncle's investment money was **kindly** declined. One slip was one too many. That one had cost him too much already._  
_He fired off two more e-mails and finally pulled out the box of stationery he had stored at the back of the bottom drawer. It had been a joke. A random trip to a fair, a papercraft stall, a kids stationery set printed with houses._  
_It had since become the most serious thing he did._  
_Uncapping the old fountain pen, he sighed. Tested it on a piece of scrap paper. Carefully balled up said scrap paper and carried it to the wastebasket. Cleaned the nib. Repositioned the lamp._  
_Sighed again, stretched._  
_Considered for a moment checking on Rose and, in case she was still awake, telling her about the progress with the house. Or about the punishment. He wasn't sure what to tell her, as it had been the very first time he was called in on such an issue. Maybe it would be better to tell her over breakfast? No. Better now._  
_He left the pen, the blank letter paper and the lamp._

_#_

_Rose was in bed and didn't react to either his knock or the door opening with a quiet whine. He stood over her for a moment, looking at the dark lashes and the small smattering of freckles on her nose._  
_"I'm sorry, darling" he whispered. "But it will get better, soon. Just... I hope you can forgive me someday."_

_#_

_There was nothing else to be done now. He had to write the letter at some point, and he knew Georgiana would nag him until he did it._  
_The pen was waiting, the paper was there and the letter had to be written._

_**Dear Elizabeth,** _

_**The girls will be fourteen very soon. I am stating the obvious because there isn't much more I can write right now. Please, do not throw this letter away and grant me the next few minutes.** _

_He sighed. He always found it easier to write than to talk, but after all that time, even writing became a challenge._  
_He could probably derail Georgiana's nagging by showing her the house plans. If she was annoyed enough with him for not telling her earlier, she might actually forget about the letter for a day or two._

####

Thursday morning was unremarkable.  
A small note to the effect of "Please consider reminding the students that there is more than one valid family model", signed by rather annoyed Mom was now resting in Rose's backpack pocket.  
Otherwise, everything was just as normal. Except for the fact that Mom actually _cried_ when she had to let her leave for school.  
"I wish I could keep you home for the next days" she admitted finally. "But..."  
"Truancy. No, I'd rather not mess up Mina's record" Rose smiled.  
It was so much easier to go to school, still as Mina, when Mom _knew_.  
No stupid remark from other students could move her. Also, there was no Italian on Thursday, which let her relax even more. And she could now call Mina openly, without hiding from Mom, so she would do so, the moment she'd be back home.  
They wouldn't be visiting grandma, they wouldn't be seeing anyone but each other.  
Rose wanted to drink in as much of Mom as was possible in the time left.  
And Mom was waiting for her in front of the school, a cooler bag on her shoulder.  
"What's this?" she tried opening the cover but got her hand slapped away.  
"Ah-ah. Not now. Today, we're doing the London experience. I've spent all morning charting out the optimal route for us."  
"Erm, Mom? What do you mean?"  
Her mother put on her sunglasses and handed her another pair.  
"You, Rose, are getting the 'everything you ever wanted to see in London' tour. Or rather 'everything I want you to see in London'. I'm not letting you go back until you at least see the most important points. Now, how is your backpack today? Do we have to go back home and drop it off, or are you fine with carrying it for the next two hours?"  
One thing Rose didn't want was to waste time. And the backpack was fine.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, what do you thing about William now? I know some people plain hate the guy... but I hope I can make him a bit more lovable!


	10. Because we have each other

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Events are moving swiftly.  
> Anne drops her mask.  
> Elizabeth forgets to charge her phone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Will anyone believe me when I claim that I just accidentally managed to write this one in 2 days? On Monday it was just an outline of 180 words.  
> No, I'm not trying to be cute, but apparently this is stronger than my plans of not touching the story until next weekend.

####

Despite the thick walls, slab-like door and generally not-so-acoustic built of the house, everyone was woken early on Thursday morning. That was due to the combination of several factors, among them being:  
\- Dad's emergency phone going off with a loud, annoying rendition of "Reveille"  
\- Dad's subsequent sloppy attempt at shutting down said emergency phone  
\- a small coffee table giving out under Dad's weight when he accidentally tripped over it in search of the aforementioned phone  
\- Dad's tendency to swear when hurt (in at least three languages Mina could identify)  
\- aunt Georgiana opening her door in panic, which caused one (thankfully resilient) sculpture to collapse from the height of about three feet onto the hall floor  
When aunt Catherine and Anne added their voices to the din, Mina could not even pretend she could sleep anymore, despite being groggy enough to miss her door handle at least three times in the attempt at opening her door and finding out what kind of catastrophe had affected the usually restrained household. Finding Anne in her ratty grey PJs, aunt Catherine wailed for a moment - apparently, her daughter had broken some kind of taboo of elegance which applied even if one was sleeping on their own in their own room - which only heightened the confusion.  
Dad finally opened his door, already dressed in his "work site" clothes (which were only a little bit more formal than his "road trip" outfit) and an orange safety vest, holding his phone in one hand and a pair of socks in the other.  
"Brian, I will need you to pick up the delivery at the train station," he said with a yawn into the phone. "I'm sorry for the early call, but there was some error... Yes, thank you. I'm texting you the details. Pick up the mail, too, there should be some documents arriving, yes. Drop them off in my study, I'll be off at the Maxwell's again. Thanks. You are a marvel" he tapped the phone and looked up at the tableau of women looking at him with apprehension. "Maxwell's just called that two different teams showed up to set up the fencing and both claim to have an order from our office. I must go there before they start hitting each other with fence posts. Rose, à propos hitting" he smiled, rather incongruously, by Mina's opinion "I've discussed the topic with the headmaster and you are being punished, young lady..."  
Aunt Catherine emitted a triumphant craw and Mina's heart sank just a bit.  
"...you have three weeks to create a poster regarding proper behaviour in case of bullying - who to report it to and how to treat the bully and the victims. Ask your form tutor today for the school leaflets on the topic and plan the contents. And" he dug shortly through his pockets, coming up with two rumpled twenties "buy all the supplies you'll need before the weekend, so we can try starting it on Saturday, will you? Buy with some buffer, so if somehow we manage to spoil one, we can work on another immediately and not have to make a shopping run."  
" _We_?" Mina asked, pocketing the money.  
"Sure" he kissed her forehead. "Punishment is half on me, after all. I should have paid more attention to what happens at your school."  
"I never told you about Ray, Dad" she responded softly.  
"And that proves my point" he shrugged his leather jacket on. "Now, three big sheets of thick cardstock should be enough. Whatever else is needed you'll have to decide once you have the leaflets in hand. Can you do that today?"  
"I'll have the singing competition meeting and I'm not sure how long this will take..." she bit her lip. "But it should be OK to buy it tomorrow and start early on Saturday, shouldn't it?"  
And by Sunday the secret would be out anyway, as Mom should be calling Dad anytime now. After she had 'psyched herself up for it', of course. Which, knowing Mom and her tendency to delay stuff, might take a bit, but it should be sometime that weekend anyway.  
"I don't see a problem. As long as we're done by Monday. Better to show some willingness to cooperate with the headmaster, than to wait until the very deadline, hm?"  
She only nodded and then yawned.  
"Now, I have no idea how long it will take to undo... whatever happened out there, so I can't promise I'll be home for dinner. Don't wait for me."  
  
#  
  
It was half past six and none of them was going back to sleep.  
Breakfast, despite Dad's absence, was quiet.  
Mina had two cups of tea, feeling not as awake as she should be. Aunt Georgiana looked inexplicably perky for the early hour and she hurried her along to the car, smiling much wider than ever.  
"The weather is changing," she said, pulling up the car roof. "It will start raining any day now."  
"Why are you so happy about it?" Mina yawned. "Sounds  _unnatural_."  
"I'm happy because it means your birthday is coming soon" Georgiana pulled the door closed. "And that there will be enough water for all the plants that need it during the winter. Dry autumn is very bad for crops, and William was worried after last year. So, rain, happy. Also..." she bit her lower lip. "I think there will be some changes, Rose. William is planning something. I'm not sure what, yet. But be prepared for surprises. Looking at how he behaves recently..."  
Mina sighed.  
"The only change we need is getting rid of  _them_ ," she said sourly. "Everything else we can deal with, but..."  
She broke off and looked up at Georgiana, feeling a flush of embarrassment flooding her. She had forgotten she wasn't speaking to  _Rose_. Wrong person, wrong way of talking, wrong...  
"Yeah" aunt Georgiana smirked at her, eyes narrowed with amusement. "I think  _this_ is exactly what we are finally getting to."  
Mina blinked. Twice.  
"Aunt G?"  
"You heard me. I think William found a way to get them off our backs. And, darling, I'm not going to beat around the bush - the day they are kicked out of the house will be the best in my life. Maybe second best. But if he manages to work through... whatever it is that makes him keep them here, I will take a week off work and go to a spa, or... whatever. I will celebrate. Buy myself a pink umbrella."  
"I think getting rid of them would be vacation enough for me," Mina said quietly. "Why does Dad tolerate them at all? They are... Anne is just useless. I'm sorry, but she is. She doesn't even clean up after herself at breakfast. And aunt Catherine..."  
"I know, darling. I still didn't manage to get it out of him, and I've  _tried_. It's like he doesn't want to admit it to anyone."  
"Did he do something to them?" Mina frowned, watching the first houses of Lambton as they approached the town line. "I mean, it's like... like a magical spell. They are here, they somehow are... controlling the situation and Dad doesn't want to speak about it!"  
"Not sure how much they are controlling" aunt Georgiana turned the car left, into one of the smaller streets. "Because he sure seems to be defying aunt Catherine on regular basis."  
"But he never says it  _directly_. He doesn't say 'stop this', he just says things to  _me_ that..."  
"That mean he supports whatever you did, yes. And I have absolutely no idea what is going through his brain, darling. Now. School. With twenty minutes to spare."  
"Thank you, aunt G" Mina pulled her backpack from under the seat. "Do you think... do you think you could get Dad to tell you what is wrong?"  
The older woman shrugged.  
"Tried three times this month. Will see if I can corner him today, OK?"  
"And will you tell me what he says?"  
Aunt Georgiana rolled her eyes.  
"As long as it isn't some terrible secret, like that he personally made them lose money or Rosings, or that he killed uncle Luis, then yes."  
"I hope he didn't!" Mina's eyes widened theatrically. "That would be hard to undo, would it?"  
"Well, maybe he did, and that's why we are doomed to be haunted by them forever?"  
  
####  
  
The school day was unremarkable - picking up the leaflets from her form tutor, fumbling through the French lesson, trying to correct the maths grade, and, miraculously, being given a chance to do a free throw during the basketball match and managing it nearly perfectly. Still, all the lessons kind of swam around her, the younger kids hugging her randomly - apparently Ray's suspension had been spoken about - her year mates milling in the corridors like usual, but Mina was slightly separated from them.  
In her mind, she was saying a goodbye already. She'd definitely be back on Friday, but she didn't see much chances for Mom keeping it up any longer. This weekend was  _it_. Mom would be calling and then... Goodbye, Lambton.  
If they managed to talk their parents into it, they'd be meeting - somewhere, who knew - but she wouldn't be coming back to  _this_ school.  
Despite all the issues with French and the lingering feeling of guilt towards Rose every time she got a slightly lower result of the maths test, she vastly preferred this place to her own school. Even the ribbing about her hair stopped after a week, and her local celebrity status earned by punching Ray added to the generally positive feelings she received from all directions.  
And that weird, open  _approval_ Dad had expressed made her actually feel slightly resentful towards Mom. Mom always talked to her about violence, about restraining her natural reaction to someone's aggression, about controlling the reflex that led Mina to bloodying a nose or two, but she always seemed slightly  _resentful_ of the fact that she had to visit the school and talk to the teachers about Mina's antics.  
Yes, she was always calm and never openly chastised her for lashing out, especially if the objects were repeat offenders. She always explained to the teacher in question why the other kids were wrong, but never got around to telling Mina that she had been right - or at least justified - to do what she did.  
Maybe the difference was that now she had acted in the defence of the smaller kids and not her own.  
  
#  
  
The last thing on the schedule was the competition rehearsal. Miss Yang was waiting for them already when they appeared - Teddy and she. So, she was supposed to sing in front of the strongest rival from her own form. Ha. She would show him.  
She wished she could stay until the competition, to show  _them all_ how it could be done. But at least she would leave Miss Yang with an interesting impression, hopefully. Well, until they all learnt who "Rose" actually was in these brief weeks.  
She wondered briefly how long it would take Dad to untangle that. Or Mom.  
_Yikes. No wonder Mom is keeping quiet. She will have to go to school again and explain_ **that** _._  
She felt a slight twinge of conscience. Mom would have to go to school and explain to the teachers that she not only had two kids, one of which is living with her not-husband but that these kids had fooled everyone - including said teachers - and switched during vacation. Without her knowing. As if someone would believe her. Maybe Mom could ask Dad to bring her to London and they could go to school together, to prove that there were two of them… The headmaster in Lambton would probably be more willing to believe Dad telling him about the switch without having to be shown a living proof.  
Mina shook it off. This would be next week. Now she had a song to sing and Teddy to defeat. It was the time for the breathing exercises and some relaxing of muscles. As Teddy was walked through corrections to his performance - a rather spirited rendition of "Star of the County Down" - she tensed and loosened her shoulders, rolled her head slowly and stretched her arms. Finding a good, stable, comfortable position to sing the whole song was something Mom had taught her rather early on.  
"Now, Rose. You didn't change your mind in these two days, did you? Still 'Loch Lomond'?"  
Mina only shook her head.  
"Very well. Whenever you are ready."  
She closed her eyes and took a deep breath.  _Mom. I wish you could hear this one._  
  
#  
  
"Very nice. Very, very nice. I don't see anything I could correct, except maybe that point when you sing 'road' at the end of the line - remember to make adequate time for it. The line doesn't end with 'low', you know. Otherwise, you corrected the 'before' and 'afore' difference and everything else is fine now. So, another go and this time remember about the second 'road'."  
Mina dutifully breathed deeply, straightened her shoulders and began anew, this time focusing only on the correct rhythm in the chorus and fitting in the missing word.  
  
#  
  
"I'll have to break your ankle, Darcy, or something" Teddy said mock-morosely, looking at her with a smirk. "Because you'll be, like, totally smashing on that competition. And I mean it, honestly. Once you polish this thing and maybe get someone to play it for you, you can enter at a county fair or something. I'm planning to, but you totally should, too."  
"Thanks" she shrugged. "But I'd rather you left my ankles alone. Besides, if you do something like this, it will mean you're afraid of honest competition."  
"Ah, well, yes. Also, I'd much rather avoid walking around the school with a black eye like the one you've presented to Raymond. I have a sister in the primary and she says the kids worship you now, you know?"  
She rolled her eyes.  
"Yeah, I kind of noticed. I got three cookies today" she shrugged her backpack on. "See you tomorrow, Strickland" she smirked. "Don't break any of your ankles, either. I appreciate honest competition myself, and I don't want people saying that  _I_ took  _you_  out."  
Teddy sucked in a breath.  
"I could walk you to the bus. If you wanted."  
_Shhhugar_.  
"But you do know that it's stopping just in front of the main gate? It's not like I'm going to get lost or something."  
"I could walk you to the main gate then" he suggested bravely.  
_Double sugar._  
"Teddy. Thanks. Really. But I'd rather just... go there alone, OK?"  
_And give my thanks to my fortune that he doesn't live in Kympton or anywhere around because_ **that** _would have been awkwaaaard..._  
"OK" he nodded and sniffed slightly. "Sure. Thanks, Darcy. Rose. Yeah. Cool. See you tomorrow."  
"See you."  
_Disaster averted. Hopefully._  
  
####  
  
_Rose curled up under Mina's duvet - again in its Merida-patterned cover - was the most miraculous thing Lizzy had ever seen - or at least in the last thirteen years. She knew perfectly well she should be calling William any minute now. They should meet that weekend the latest, but she really, really wanted to keep Rose to herself for a moment more. Just a day. Maybe a week. Why not a week? Mina seemed fine at Pemberley... Unless, of course, Catherine de Bourgh managed to cook up something new._  
_Lizzy shivered._  
_It was a wonder Rose wasn't more resentful of having been left in Derbyshire. It was a wonder the kid even wanted to talk to her at all._  
_The fact that she was here, now, in front of her, was nothing less than a marvel._  
_Of course Rose had questions. She had doubts. She had voiced her reproofs and her condemnation. Yet still, she stayed and followed Lizzy in the mad tour around the city, watching with wide eyes as Elizabeth crammed into one afternoon the regrets of thirteen years, pushing them at a punishing speed through all the places that hadn't been marked as "with Rose" before. Places that Mina had experienced and that Elizabeth's stubbornness and childish defiance had taken away from Rose._  
_They managed to cover half of Lizzy's planned route - missing the opening times of 221B Baker Street by mere minutes due to traffic - and ended up in Kew Gardens, sitting on a blanket, drinking strawberry smoothie that had been stowed in Lizzy's cooler bag and eating fruit salad she mixed up from the containers she had carried in her backpack._  
_It seemed, in a way, that Rose was equally frantic in her willingness to fill in every second of the time left with Elizabeth. She asked questions. About everything. About London. Lizzy's work. Mina's childhood. Her cousins - she admitted she still couldn't really work out who was who of Jane's kids. Lizzy's crafts._  
_Lizzy herself felt her throat constricting whenever she tried asking her own questions._  
**How was he.**  
**How was Georgiana.**  
**Had he ever mentioned her.**  
**Had he ever given...**  
_She shied away from that one, not even forming it fully in her thoughts._  
_They picked up the remnants of their tiny party and braved the evening Tube, making only a small detour for a bit of necessary shopping, including Mina's favourite shampoo - after thinking for a split second, Lizzy another, smaller bottle. Just in case._  
_At home, she decided to forgo working for the evening. Spending as much time as possible with Rose was more important. The morning call to school had temporarily resolved the problems with Italian - "Mina" had been moved to another group "to allow her to catch up after holidays", with certain resistance, but, thankfully, not from the side of the Italian teacher, who was one of the few Elizabeth could actually talk to at that institution. That gracious woman accepted Lizzy's halting explanation of lessons of French taken during vacations that had apparently affected "Mina's" Italian adversely and suggested that Elizabeth should probably go over some exercises together with "Mina". And that was what they did, sitting at the kitchen table and with Elizabeth explaining the details of Italian pronunciation, helpful similarities between Italian and French..._  
#  
_"So you_ **do** _speak French!" her daughter exclaimed with surprise._  
_Lizzy snorted._  
_"Obviously. I had to learn, at some point, if at least to show..." she stuttered. "Well. I had to know what I was talking about. I had taken Italian at school already, and then I picked additional French when I was considering my PhD. I think it was the only part I actually properly finished."_  
_Rose looked at her searchingly and Lizzy felt a flutter of surprise. The gold of the eyes was_ **hers** _, but the brows, the shape, the set and the frown - it was all Georgiana. And, obviously, William. Somehow in Rose, it was much more visible than Mina had ever displayed. Probably due to being raised by these two._  
_She swallowed and looked down at the exercise book again._  
_"I'm not fluent" she said quickly. "I can read a book - slowly. I can order something in a restaurant, I can use a guidebook and I can watch the news. Speaking to actual living human beings, out of the question. I can't follow the conversation quickly enough to be able to answer. Even border guards spoke too quickly for me to manage. And my accent is laughable."_  
_"Dad speaks French like a native" Rose informed her lightly. "At least great-aunt Mathilda said so."_  
_"Of course he does. His mother had been teaching him since before he started speaking at all. I just took measly two years before I had to give it up due to simple lack of time."_  
_Lizzy tapped the part of the page she wanted them to focus on immediately, but then thought better of it and closed the book._  
_"I suppose it seems silly to do this just for the sake of tomorrow's lessons" she said. "We're wasting valuable time. You'll live through tomorrow somehow, and undoing this will anyway probably include Mina taking a bunch of tests so that they can reset whatever grades you got and have hers entered into the system. And I..." she felt a slight tightness in her chest. "I will call your father tomorrow."_  
_Rose pushed the textbook away but shook her head._  
_"I will take Italian next year."_  
_"You are taking_ **Dutch** _next year. Don't overexert yourself. Two new languages may be a problem."_  
_"Then I will pick Italian at the uni. Or I will take additional classes, outside of school. And, anyway, by then, it will not be a_ **new** _language for me."_  
_Elizabeth knew that stubborn frown well._  
_"You always can, but if you have two languages already, you will be better off than many students in Europe anyway. Now. What can we do with an evening that we have started in such a fabulous manner?"_  
_Rose bit her lip just a bit._  
_"Could we, like, watch something? I mean, Mina told me you two watch a lot of different stuff and..."_  
_"Oh, ducky" Elizabeth laughed. "Easiest thing ever. Oooh, I know. I know!" she searched quickly through her DVD shelf. "I know, it will seem pretty crazy at the beginning, but bear with me, OK? Mina loves it, and it's like ten seasons now... well, actually, a bit more, but we'll start with the one that is we two began with..." she trailed off, staring at the blue DVD cover. "Yeah. Just don't laugh. This episode is actually titled 'Rose'."_  
_Her daughter's brows rode up a bit._  
_"I'm not kidding. Anyway, sit and let's see how you like it, OK?"_  
  
#  
  
_They managed to watch half of "The Unquiet Dead" before Rose started drooping and Elizabeth turned the player off. They sat in silence, Rose's head propped on Lizzy's shoulder as the girl took a shuddering breath._  
_"Do you think we could get together sometime soon?" she asked finally. "I don't want us to just, you know, separate totally."_  
_"I hope so" Elizabeth pulled her closer. "Now that you two breached the wall, we would be stupid not to follow."_  
_"Why didn't you... I mean, I_ **missed** _you. I didn't even really know it, but I did. And I suppose Mina missed Dad, too."_  
_Elizabeth watched the top of the black-haired head as they both breathed quietly in sync._  
_"I tried" she said finally. "It didn't work.”_  
_"But you will not just let this go now?"_  
_"No way. I mean, that would be a waste. If..." she bit her lip. "If your father doesn't agree to you coming here, then at least maybe Mina could visit you there. I will talk to him about this, OK? I mean, he has had Mina now for all these weeks, I suppose he will want to meet her again... So if, well..." she didn't want to say anything that would sound like she was afraid of what William could answer to that request._  
_"If Mina could come to visit us, it would be good, too" Rose confirmed sleepily. "But I want to see_ **you** _again."_  
_"I will be there, kitten" she could only answer. "As long as your father allows, I will be there. If not for Mina's school, I could actually be up there all the time, if I found a flat somewhere nearby. It's not like I have an office I have to show up at" she sighed and rubbed Rose's shoulder. "But maybe every other weekend, for the foreseeable future, at least? Mina will probably have her own ideas, too. Did you call her today, by the way?"_  
_"Yeah, before we started with Italian. She said one of the blokes from my class tried to ask her out."_  
_"Tried to_ **what** _?"_  
_"She turned him down. We have an agreement. No guys on the other's account."_  
_"Oh, my. Very well" she felt a tiny bit faint. A boy asked Mina out and she wasn't there to hear about it._  
**Rose was there, though. Which is exactly how they should have been all these years, Lizzy. You took it away from them** _._  
_"And you? I mean, anyone at school, anything?"_  
_Rose leaned her head back and looked at her with incredulity._  
_"They are all morons" she said with a roll of her eyes._  
_Lizzy snorted._  
_God, they were growing up._  
_She had almost missed this._  
  
#  
  
_Rose was fast asleep, so Elizabeth closed her door quietly and sat in front of her darkened screens._  
_"And what now, Miss Bennet?" she asked herself softly. "What are you going to do now? They can't be separated again, but can you let any of them actually go? Hm? Or maybe it’s time to stop being a selfish idiot?"_  
_She opened a search engine and, with apprehension, typed a query to find flats for rent in Lambton._  
  
_####_  
  
_His office was warmer than the world outside, where the rain had picked up again. He turned the AC a bit more towards actual heating and stretched on the low chair in front of his laptop, where Jonathan's face could be seen on the video call._  
_"Sorry. I need a bit more heat apparently. You were saying?"_  
_"We have everything in place, including the smart house software. And I mean it's_ **smart** _. The company finally showed me the piece they'd 'already had'. I suppose they must have paid some poor coder a heap of money to get it done in time, but it works. They have a test installation, including a mock fireplace, on which they run simulations. Looks pretty nifty and as far as I can judge, it does all that we've discussed. Power combination, the division of heating, varied temperature per room and it can access the API of the solar power batteries Charles is ordering, out of the box, so there is one less system to be monitored already. You'll have everything on your desktop or on your tablet through a local website. They have admitted openly that the app for the phone is in the testing stage, but they should have it ready by the end of the year."_  
_"Desktop is good enough for me.”_  
" _Does this mean it's a go?"_  
_"It's definitely a go, Jonathan" William smiled widely. "I am having Charles over for the weekend in two weeks. Would you be able to drop by, so we can visit the site and officially start this project?"_  
_"Definitely, but I hope there will be a proper party once the house is actually up and built, too, you know."_  
_"We'll make it a picnic to remember. We'll set up a trampoline and all the kids will be able to jump until they are sick. And I'll ask Mrs R to make tons of apple and blackberry pie, to make sure everyone has a chance to get as dirty as they can."_  
_"I see you have extensive plans. Now, a weekend in two weeks, I'm putting it in my organiser and my phone, just in case. And I'm sending you the last, official version of the design to be signed off. On Monday I'll have one of the guys drop by your office with the hardcopy so we have it legally all proper and correct."_  
_"My legal team will contact your legal team then."_  
_"Yeah. Let Albert flirt with Marianne a bit more, right?"_  
_"I was kind of suspicious of all the time they were spending reviewing that last contract..."_  
_"Considering it was the most standard thing we've ever done."_  
_They snorted in unison._  
_"Now, is there anything left?"_  
_"No, we have all we need to begin. I will need your input on interior decoration by February though, so we can start shopping for all the fiddly little elements in advance. Considering the size of the bathrooms you asked for, the amount of tiles will be more than we'd need to cover an Olympic-sized pool."_  
_"And we will have a different set for each of the entrance-side ones" William smirked. "So we'd better start thinking about these as soon as possible, in case we need to hunt for some of them."_  
_"If the kid wants princess pink, you are buying them yourself. I'm not sullying my order history with Disney patterns."_  
_"Rose? No way. Well, maybe. But she will have to share with Georgiana, so I'll let the two of them negotiate for a reasonable solution. I suppose we'll end up with a lot of teal and turquoise, or something like this."_  
_"I can accept teal. Fine. We'll have to have a look at the details of the bathroom set-up in October, so we make sure you have all the needed water pipes in the right places, lighting and so on. And the layout for power sockets in the rooms, to cut down on using extension cords. I remember about Rose's movie projector, don't worry. We'll plan the location of the screen to make sure it doesn't obstruct any door when extended but also provides space enough in front of it to put some seats there. What size do you want?"_  
_William tapped his nails on the tabletop._  
_"No idea. No idea what sizes there are, actually. I suppose I'll need to do some research now..."_  
_"Nah, I'll have Denise check this for us, she was recently buying one for their place. And the projectors, too."_  
_"OK, thanks. Say 'hi' to Denise from me. I'll be grateful for anything she can tell me, I have no time to dig into this right now."_  
_"And I'll drop off some catalogues with kitchen furniture and appliances, you can give these to Mrs R to choose from. She knows the best what will be needed in the Darcys' kitchen, after all."_  
_"Not like I have any input apart from 'a coffee maker'. I know my limitations."_  
_"A mark of a wise man. That will be all, I suppose. Fireplaces are now pretty much standardised so whichever you finally pick, we'll be able to work with it. Again, best if you make your choice before mid-February. we'll have better chances for timely delivery then."_  
_"I'll check with the girls. Oh, what should I tell Rose about her window seat?"_  
_"Tell the kid she will have one. The width of the free wall space on the sides of the window will be just enough for two deeper bookcases, which will make the side walls of the seat. She could use them for some weird storage like kids do nowadays - papers for scrapbooking or whatever. And you can put a long shelf on top, making a roof for the seat."_  
_"And what about me?" William's voice was dripping with faux petulance. "I don't get reading nook?"_  
_"You are too big for a reading nook, you beanpole. You're longer than any of the windows is wide, but I will have an alternative proposition for you. I'm adding a sketch to the design documentation in the e-mail."_  
_"OK, fine. No window seat for me then. However will I live!"_  
_"Comfortably, Mr Darcy. Wait for the e-mail, you'll see what I mean. And I know a vendor who can make it custom built for someone your size."_  
_"Now I'm intrigued. OK, fine. Will wait for the e-mail."_  
_"Let me know before Monday if you see anything to be corrected, so I can send the right version for your signature."_  
_"Will do. I'll go over these with Rose and Georgiana, too."_  
_"Ah, time to bring your sister in on the secret?"_  
_"I should have done it before" he sighed. "I'm a bit afraid she'll be annoyed with me."_  
_"The sooner the better then. Very well. I'm calling this a day."_  
_"Good work, Jonathan. Thank you."_  
_"Ah, William. It will be a great project to make. I'm glad to be doing that with you."_  
_"Rose actually called me out on that. She said I'm doing a science project with my mates in my backyard."_  
_Jonathan roared with laughter._  
_"Good kid! And she's right. I'm giddy like a schoolboy with his first black powder rocket."_  
_"I sure hope the house will not go up in sparks like that!"_  
  
####  
  
Friday morning dawned bright and the pink sunlight glittered in the remnants of the rain from the previous day. Mina was torn between delight and sadness - on one hand, it was a nearly perfect day, and in the country, it was even prettier than it would have been in the city, but on the other, it was most probably the very  _last_ day she'd be spending in the Lambton school.  
"Remember to buy the cardstock today, imp. We'll start on the poster tomorrow morning and I'll drive you to school on Monday, to make sure our hard work survives" Dad smiled over the newspaper. "You can drop off all the shopping in my study, we'll use the big table for this."  
Mina nodded, mouth full of scrambled eggs.  
"Very well. Now, can you be downstairs in ten minutes? I have to be at the office earlier today, unfortunately. The fence companies are playing silly buggers and I'll be spending my morning shouting at people" he grimaced. "I'd much prefer to at least start it by driving over there in some nice company."  
She washed the eggs down with a half cup of tea and picked up her plate to deposit it on the kitchen tray.  
"I just need to find my tie and brush my teeth."  
  
#  
  
For her last day at school, it was rather quiet. Of course, it was an occasion only she knew about, so there was nobody to tell her "goodbye", nobody to share celebratory cookies with (should she have any), even no books to return to the library, as she had dealt with that the day before. She sat in the yard, forgoing the crowded cafeteria, eating Mrs R's rolls with cheddar and little tomatoes. Kids were milling about on their free period and she got offered no less than five different pieces of candy in under twenty minutes.  
"Someone got elevated to a princess status" Marika leaned over her bench back as yet another six-year-old ran away, leaving his chocolate chip cookie (only slightly moist) next to Mina.  
"Well, I have to pay for it. I'll spend my weekend making a big boring poster about how we are  _supposed_ to deal with berks like Ray. I've got about a pound of leaflets saying all kinds of stuff about bullying and I must somehow make it into one big piece of information."  
"Wow. You have to make a  _poster_? My Dad would have probably grounded me for something like this for, like, a month, just to make up for the school being too lax. Not to mention grandpa, who would have probably suggested trashing my hide for picking up fights at school."  
"Considering where we live, I'm basically grounded anyway. I can walk for an hour and still be on the property. And Dad said... well, he offered to show me how to punch properly next time, so I suppose he isn't exactly, you know, against making someone sorry for being a berk, from time to time. And he said he'd help me with the poster, too."  
"Wow" the other girl nodded slowly. "My Dad would have made me do it myself and probably shouted at my sisters for trying to help me, too."  
Mina shrugged.  
"Mine is... he is different, OK?"  
"Looks like it. Oh" Marika smirked at something and Mina looked around in surprise. "Someone else is watching you, too. This one won't be bringing you previously-owned cookies, I suppose."  
Teddy was sitting by the wall on the opposite side of the yard, munching steadily at his sandwich. And watching them. Her.  
_Uh-oh._  
"We talked yesterday after the competition rehearsal" she informed Marika, quickly packing her tomatoes back to their box. "He kind of..."  
"Hit on you?"  
"Well, I wouldn't say  _hit_ \- he was very nice about it, but, well. He wanted to 'walk me to the bus', you know."  
Marika snorted and sipped some more of her soda.  
"That's surprisingly sweet for a guy who had declared only four months ago that all girls suck and he wouldn't touch any of us with a ten-feet pole."  
"Well, apparently it's not only women who change their minds" Mina threw the lunchbox into her backpack. "Come on, let's get inside. Biology is starting in five."  
"So, did he?" Marika held the door open for both of them.  
"Did he what?"  
"Walk you to the bus."  
"No way" Mina rolled her eyes. "He's my main competitor in the singing contest. I can't fraternise with the enemy, can I?"  
  
#  
  
As they exited the building after the last period, Teddy was already waiting there.  
_If he sees I'm going into town, he will insist on walking with me. Which will be even worse than just the stupid walk to the bus. But I have to go shopping..._  
Teddy's smile fell just a tiny bit as she brushed by him and quickly walked to the bus for Kympton and neighbouring villages.  
_I'll explain it to aunt Georgiana and ask her to drive me back to Lambton later. If she comes with me, then even if I meet Teddy again, he won't be able to just attach himself to me._  
The bus was warm and the traffic was snail-slow. And Friday was finally catching up with everyone, so it was quiet and sleepy inside...  
"Darcy? Rose? Isn't this your stop?" someone shook her shoulder and she startled awake.  
"God, yes. Thanks! Wait!" she shouted towards the driver who had already started to close the door. "Sorry, fell asleep!"  
The big man smiled at her and rolled his eyes, but opened the door once again, letting her out in front of the Kympton church. She shrugged the backpack on, corrected the placement of her gym bag to avoid it pressing on her clavicle and walked slowly up the little country road home.  
_Home. Last day at school, last time going back home this way. Last time I see this church, I suppose, unless Mom and Dad decide we can see each other again. Last time I walk up here, with this backpack, watching the sheep. Last time I can sit on that wall and call Rose. At least I'll be able to call Rose openly from now on - hopefully. But it won't be the same, will it?_  
She hopped up to sit on the lower section of the wall from which she could watch the herds being rounded by big dogs, almost as woolly as their charges. Like small, flat clouds they migrated across the green surface in search of a better spot to graze on.  
_Four weeks. I had four weeks and I didn't manage to find out anything of significance. And now Mom will call and they will switch us back and then nobody will be just speaking to us like now, because they will know we knew, so they will hide stuff from us. And we will never find out what really happened, and we won't know what it is that aunt Catherine did to Dad to make him keep them here._  
She sighed. Today was the day. The day to interrogate Dad the moment she could. At least she had a co-conspirator, because, rather obviously, aunt Georgiana was also quite fed up with the current situation. And she probably had much better weapons and means of convincing Dad to fess up than Mina had. But they would have to work quickly, before Mom called...  
  
#  
  
Georgiana's car had a flat tyre.  
"I'm sorry, darling. I can't change it right now, because my spare one is... well, it's already this one. But Brian should be going do Lambton any minute now, you could catch a ride with him."  
"Actually, Mr Swift had just left. He had to drop off some mail and fetch another package for William" Anne informed them apathetically. "But I was thinking about driving down there myself, just to see if there is anything new in the bakery. I could take Rose."  
Georgiana looked at Mina hesitantly.  
"Thank you, aunt Anne" Mina said quickly. "I will just leave my backpack upstairs and fetch some tote to put the shopping in, OK?"  
"Sure" Anne shrugged. "I'll be in the drive. Just don't take ages to get there, or I'll leave without you."  
_That was weird. Mom would say, straight from the Twilight Zone._  
She dug up a long-eared tote and a purse, dropping the two twenties from Dad, her phone and her bus card in there, just in case her shopping took longer than Anne's and the woman wanted to leave earlier.  
  
#  
  
Anne’s car was slightly bigger than Georgiana’s - a proper sedan with a full roof, which was a definite advantage in the weather like they were having that afternoon. Still, it wasn’t a very  _big_ car, so the tote and purse found their way to the back seat very quickly. Anne was silent until they joined the traffic on the main road, but then…  
“OK, kid. We have, like, fifteen minutes of ride to the mall, so let’s make some things clear.”  
_What the…_  
“I am going to marry your father. There is nothing you can do about it. So stop trying. It’s not cute and it stopped being funny some time ago. You two had your laughs, now it stops. Georgiana will have to pay her part now, and if she doesn’t like it, well, there are plenty of flats to be rented in the town. And you can stop dreaming about some fancy foreign school. William won’t be spending heaps of money on idiocy like this. You can get a degree in England and start being useful.”  
“Aunt Anne…” Mina looked up at the woman in surprise.  
“Shut up. Now. I’m speaking. You can have this weekend with Daddy, why not. Make the damned poster or whatever, sure. From now on, it’s preparation for the wedding, and I don’t want any interference from you or Georgiana. And even if you two do try, well. This can only end in one way, so, whatever. By New Year I’m going to be the new Mrs Darcy and I will remember who cooperated and who didn’t. And you will find out that it’s better to cooperate with your new mother rather than antagonise her, pet.”  
_New mother. I’m going to throw up._  
"I see we have an understanding. Very well. We will get along perfectly if you just obey. It isn’t that hard, now, is it? I say, you do. If you don’t, there will be consequences. You overstep, there will be consequences. You make any fuss at school, there will be consequences. And they will be no posters, I assure you.”  
“But…”  
“I will make sure your Dad knows we have come to an agreement on this” Anne flashed her a crooked smile. “We can even sign a mother-daughter ‘contract’ on it. I think we will. Contracts work rather well when dealing with family, don’t they?”  
Mina grabbed the over-door handle to keep upright as Anne took a corner and watched her aunt incredulously.  
“I see your dear Dad didn’t tell you  _that_. Well, let’s say that he  _owes_ us. And, therefore, we  _own_ him. And now I’m going to make sure I get what’s mine, properly. So, pet, you can say goodbye to your school. We’ll be transferring you to a more appropriate place next semester. Start getting used to the new order. And new discipline.”  
Mina felt sick. She had to call Rose right now. And Dad. And…  
“The mall. Your stop,  _darling_. Get out, I need to do my own shopping, too. And remember what I said, pet. Don’t interfere, or there will be consequences. For you and for your dear Daddy. William Darcy is  _mine_.”  
Mina opened the door with shaky hands and stepped outside, straight into a puddle. She looked down to see her trainers becoming two small swimming pools full of filthy rainwater and shivered with disgust. Before she could reach for the back door of the car, Anne slammed the passenger side one close and sped away, leaving Mina sprayed with some more of said rainwater.  
"Blast it" Mina said quietly, seeing the "CLOSED" sign on the mall door and the workers in orange vests milling inside. The drizzle turned into a downpour.  
The whole street was, in fact, dark. Including the streetlights. Or lack thereof.  
“Double blast it.”  
  
####  
  
There was a singing event in the park. Rose wasn't sure which park it was exactly by that time, but it was a perfect place for a picnic, and there was a small band of people leading the audience in attempts at singing various folk songs. Consisting of a young woman who fiddled, another who played the harp and two guys with acoustic guitars providing a melody and a tall, artistic looking bloke serving as the conductor, teaching the random crowd how to react to directions, they didn't present a high level of sophistication, but they were enthusiastic and the conductor was definitely charismatic.  
And Mom sang. Everything and anything. Folk - including valiant attempts at non-English parts of various songs. When the event moved towards shanties, she joined in easily. Then pop ballads. Then drinking songs...  
"Come on, Rose" Mom pulled her closer. "I want to see them better."  
They made their way between people and found themselves suddenly at the front of the crowd. Visible and clearly noticeable. The conductor bowed towards them with a smile when he started the next song and Mom joined in immediately, her bright voice cutting through the disorganised murmur of the crowd. With her orange and maroon tunic and blood-red trousers, she stood out from the after-office crowd of muted blues and greys. Rose felt positively colourless in her school uniform shirt and trousers and her hair combed and tamed with bobby pins. Mom looked like a woodland elf lost among the city dwellers.  
_I love her. I don't want to go home._  
_I have to._  
  
#  
  
"That was  _glorious_."  
Rose gushed. Like a kid. But it  _was_. British Museum had quickly been promoted to the top three of Rose's favourite museums, together with the Museum of Natural History in Vienna and Mauritshuis. The size itself meant she would have to come back, many times. She wasn't going to let Dad avoid visiting London anymore. Now that the cat was out of the bag there was no reason to keep away from their own capital while visiting half of the continent. She had  _plans_ , whatever the so-called grown-ups worked out between themselves. Dad could continue to avoid Mom if he wished, but she knew what she wanted and that was her Mom and her sister.  
"We could nip out to the V&A tomorrow morning" Mom said absently.  
Rose's heart jumped.  
"So, you're not calling Dad?"  
"Blast it" Mom mumbled. "Managed to forget just for a moment. Well, nothing to it, I'll call when we get home."  
They walked silently to the Tube.  
"I will ask Dad to let me visit. It wouldn't be that hard. I could ask aunt Georgiana to drive me to Matlock and I could take the train to London. It will be what, three hours?"  
"I'd prefer for you not to travel that far without someone" Mom patted her shoulder. "Now, just... let's wait, OK? We shouldn't be making any big plans until we know what your father thinks about this whole... mess. Now, we still have time today to catch some..."  
A man behind Mom made a sudden move, bringing his backpack higher, over the heads of other passengers. Mom ducked, looking up nervously and raising her hand. Mom ducked, despite the fact that the guy was in safe distance from them and was simply, rather obviously, trying to make his way out of the train. Mom saw him  _despite the fact that he had been behind her all that time_.  
"Mom, our station" she reminded her mother softly. "Hm?"  
"Yes" a short, jerky nod. "Let's... can we sit for a moment?"  
"Sure, but, Mom, what was  _that_?"  
Her mother rubbed her face with both hands.  
"I'm guessing that your classmates, similarly to Mina's, hadn't discovered the joy of what  _mine_  called so adorably 'Scare the shortarse'. The game consisted mostly of throwing various objects as low over my head as was possible."  
Rose sucked in a breath.  
"Yeah. My primary sucked."  
"But, Mom, it's like..."  
"Bullying. At the time also known as 'boys being boys' or 'children should resolve these things between themselves' or, also 'they are just joking' and, in extreme cases 'he probably likes you, that's why he's behaving like that'."  
"But..." Rose tried to formulate the general feeling of wrongness that gave her but failed.  
"Mostly I avoided the company of people much taller than me" Mom sighed.  
"Dad is taller."  
Silence. Rose felt the urge to slap herself.  
"He is" Mom rubbed her eyes again and then sat straighter. "He is also the only person  _ever_  who had always moved around me in such a way that I was not startled or scared. Even uncle Charles sometimes forgets and slaps my shoulder or something. William... the first time I dropped the book I was holding, he was so... so authentically  _scared_  of my reaction. Ever since, he always made sure to make himself seen, or at least not to stand behind me. OK" she sighed. "I'm better now. Let's just go up here, we'll make a quick detour to M&S because I have to stock up on cookies and ginger tea. And then..."  
"Then we go home."  
"Yeah. Home."  
  
#  
  
The flat was small, somehow feeling smaller than ever before. Rose quickly dropped her - Mina's - backpack in the bedroom and sneaked into Mom's room.  
"Mmm, Jane was calling me on Skype. Why didn't she..." Mom fished out her phone. "Ah. Dead."  
Her laptop started ringing.  
  
####

 


	11. And when one is hurt

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mina is lost. And found.  
> Calls are made.  
> Conversation are held.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, this. Took a bit more than I expected, but when you have chapter 11 half-written almost from the beginning, it must be re-done by the time it's needed.

Lambton in the rain was much less fun than Lambton dry and sunny, which she had come to know in the previous weeks. Her fingers were stiff, she had litres of rainwater in her trainers, an icy stream of water was going down her spine and her denim jacket was plastered to her body, not giving her even an illusion of cover against the slight, but annoyingly cool wind.

The police station was at least dry - except for the small puddles of water she left on the old lino as she walked up to the front desk. A policewoman sitting there smiled at her professionally.

"Excuse me, but... Could you help me call my Dad?"

Mina hated herself for feeling so tired and sounding so childish, but after spending what felt like half an hour looking for a police station in pounding rain she could only feel relief at finding one. She couldn't really bring herself up to the 'grown-up' level of communication. Also, she thought, sometimes it is better to sound a bit like a little kid - may make getting some help easier.

"What happened? Are you lost?"

The woman looked at her with a frown and Mina made an effort to be more coherent.

"My... my aunt drove me to town... And she dropped me off and went back home" she sneezed, dismayed by the fact that she had to wipe her nose on her sleeve. "And I left my backpack in her car, so I don't even have money for the bus, and my phone is there, too" she sneezed again. "And I can't walk four miles in this rain..."

"Reilly, what is this kid doing here? Give her at least a towel, she's soaked through!" a bigger, much more energetic woman walked in, surveying Mina with interest. "What are you doing outside in this weather, kid? Reilly! Towels!"

"I'm sorry" Mina managed to say before she found herself with an armful of grey towel. "I just need..."

"To get dry" the new woman interrupted her. "At least you'll stop making puddles here. Sit, sit, the chair is all plastic. Reilly! A blanket, or two! Reilly doesn't trust kids, you see" she turned to Mina and smiled. "She thinks everyone under eighteen is just making fun of police. Now, what can I do for you? I'm Martine, by the way. Sergeant Martine Hanners. And what's your name?"

"I'm" her voice wobbled. "I'm Rose Darcy. And I kind of need someone to call my Dad, because he may be worried. All my things are in my aunt's car and I think I am supposed to be home already, but I don't have money for the bus..."

Reilly entered with two scratchy blankets which she almost threw at Mina.

"All right, kiddo, take off the jacket and your trousers, wrap yourself in the blankets and sit by the radiator. Now, what is your Dad's phone number?"

Mina blinked slowly, trying to focus. She wasn't sure she remembered the number  _correctly_ in the first place, but now, wet, tired and rather worried by aunt Anne's rantings, she  _was_ sure she didn't remember it  _at all_ . Sergeant Hanners was looking at her patiently, but there was nothing coming up. She could probably recall  _Mom's_ number if she focused, but that wasn't going to help her right now.

"I... I don't know. I have them all on my phone, and in my notebook..." she squeezed her eyes shut, trying not to cry. Her nose was already blocked and her eyes were tearing up with every new sneeze, crying would not have made the situation any better. Also, she very much wished  _not_ to look like a snivelling kid in front of that Reilly woman.

"God, kids these days" she heard her say. "So  _lazy_ ."

"You can't honestly tell me you remember your folks' mobile numbers" Sergeant Hanners answered tersely. "The kid had probably never needed to call home from a landline, why should she remember it?"

"OK, girl, what is your father's name?"

Mina blinked and nodded. At least this answer she could give correctly.

"William Darcy. The house is Pemberley" she said slowly. "It's on..."

"Dear lord, this is  _Darcy's_ kid!" Reilly interrupted her. "Now I know why she doesn't even know how to call her father. Who  _would_ call that guy?"

"REILLY!" Martine's outburst quieted the other policewoman immediately. "I know you hold a grudge against that family, but do be professional.  _If you can._ Go and find me a number for Pemberley, so we can call someone to pick young Rose up. They need to bring her a change of clothes."

Reilly rolled her eyes and stomped towards her desk, while Martine swiftly helped Mina out of her dripping wet jacket and trousers and wrapped her in the colourless, shapeless blankets. The clothes were hung over the backs of two chairs and Mina was seated on another (slightly less uncomfortable), just next to the radiator that had been hastily turned to full power. Trying to control her shivering, she listened carefully as Reilly - whatever her rank was - argued with a man on the other end of the line that she simply  _required_ the Pemberley number or any other contact to William Darcy.

"What do you mean, restricted? I am a police officer, I... What do you mean, official channels?!" she slammed the receiver on the phone and huffed. "It seems  _Mr Darcy_ had his number delisted quite effectively. They said they'd need a warrant to give us his number! And with the network down I don't have any access to our own directory. Stupid computers."

"Try the office?" Mina ventured hoarsely. "Dad had a webpage with the number for the office. They stay late a lot."

"As if they'd give us the time of the day..." Reilly mumbled but pulled out her mobile. "Good thing these are still working."

"Hopefully, they will at least let him know we are looking for him. If they don't want to hand over his number, ask them to call him and tell him to contact us himself. This way he has his precious privacy and we get the girl back to him."

"If he is looking for her, he should be here the minute we tell him..." Reilly turned to the desk telephone and picked up the receiver. "Darcy Building Technologies? That it?"

Mina confirmed, clenching her teeth in an attempt to control the shivering.

"OK. Here comes nothing" Reilly punched the numbers into her phone as if it had personally insulted her. "Hello. Constable Reilly, Lambton sixth, I need to contact Mr Darcy... Yes, I understand that it's his company line, but I need... No, I don't want... Can you please contact him yourself then? And inform him that the sixth station needs him to call immediately? Our number... Yes, that's it. Yes, thank you. Please do. Thank you" she replaced the receiver much more gently than before. "At least they didn't treat me like an inferior human being. Surprise."

Mina sneezed.

Sergeant Hanners rolled her eyes.

"Come on, kid. Into my office. It has a bigger radiator and a couch. And a box of tissues. You are running out of sleeves."

 

####

 

_Anne was unrepentant, but William's eyes never left her, making her squirm in her seat. He really couldn't believe in her stubborn show of offended innocence. There were many things he had had to forgive her (if only because she had been mostly controlled by her mother) - being a general pest or trying to interfere with his house and life. Many. But not harming Rose. Never harming Rose._

_This was, finally, the moment. He just had to make triple sure that he had all the facts before he moved forward. Lack of attention to detail could create additional problems, so if he managed to utilise that occasion correctly..._

_"So, you let her out at the mall, like she asked you to."_

_"Yes. So?"_

_"And then you drove away."_

_"_ _**Yes** _ _."_

_"...with all her things in the car."_

_"God, William, really. Yes. I've told you already. She left her rubbish in the car. Why are you yapping about this all the time?"_

_William managed to stop the oncoming facepalm with an effort. He didn't even have to hand her the rope._

_"So you left a fourteen-year-old in a town four miles from home, with no phone, no money, no bus card and no umbrella, is this right?"_

_"Not my fault!"_

_This was already the third round of Anne trying to explain how much she was innocent of leaving Rose alone and with no means of communication. Fifteen minutes had passed since she had entered the house and dropped Rose's tote and purse on the counter in the hall, shouting for Rose to come and pick them up. Ten minutes since William understood that his daughter was, in fact, still in Lambton and none of them had any idea where._

_And that his cousin was apparently too stupid to understand that_ _ **leaving**_ _Rose in Lambton without the means to come back, meant Rose still_ _ **was**_ _in Lambton and hadn't magically transported herself home. Sometimes he wondered how they could actually be related. Even aunt Catherine presented better grasp on reality - sometimes one much too keen for his needs, but he vastly preferred an intelligent opponent to, frankly speaking, a wacko. Anne was quickly approaching the "wacko" category in his mind._

_He finally stalled her explanations with a short "enough!" and pulled out his mobile._

_"112, what is your emergency?"_

_"Hello, yes. My daughter seems to be missing - I know it doesn't sound very serious, but the weather outside..."_

_"Please, slow down. I see your location - please confirm, Derbyshire, Lambton area?"_

_"Yes."_

_"And the problem you are having?"_

_"My daughter is somewhere in Lambton - she went there with a family member, but she doesn't have a phone or money to take a bus..."_

_"I see. Please wait, I'm connecting you to the local police department."_

_After two more exchanges of similar character and about half an hour of fighting various phone systems ("Press 4 to stay on the line"), William's blood pressure was steadily rising. By the time a real human being picked up, he was striding around the hall, feeling more and more frustrated._

_Anne's "innocence oppressed" pose as she sat primly on one of the benches didn't improve his mood a jot. She was playing some game on her mobile and, from time to time, raising an ironical eyebrow when he mumbled curses at the automated responders. His fingers twitched when he thought about simply dragging her outside by her shirt and throwing the contents of her room all over her._

_An imaginary puddle of mud made that vision even more attractive, but he was distracted from it by a female voice - an actual person this time! - answering the call._

_"Hello, Sergeant Martine Hanners speaking, how can I help you?"_

_"William Darcy here. I'm looking for my daughter, and I really, really don't want you to just switch me to another person, so..."_

_"Daughter's name?"_

_"Rose. Rosalinde Darcy. I really can't... She doesn't have her documents, or money, or phone..."_

_"General description?"_

_"Five feet tall, short dark hair, light brown eyes, freckles..." he thought for a moment. "Georgiana! What was Rose wearing?"_

_He heard some muttering on the line but ignored it for a moment._

_His sister frowned, looking at him clutching the phone._

_"School uniform trousers and a t-shirt. And I think the blue denim jacket."_

_He relayed the information to the police officer and waited._

_"Rose!"_

_His heart stopped for just a second._

_"Excuse me?"_

_"Rose, darling, come here" he heard some noises again. "Do you want to talk to your father, honey?"_

_"Dad...?" Rose sounded hoarse, tired and sick and he could immediately picture her stuffy nose and red-rimmed eyes._

_"Rose, are you all right?"_

_She sneezed._

_"Not really, no" she said rather sensibly. "I think I might have caught a cold."_

_"I'll come and get you. Which station are you in?"_

_"Sergeant Martine will know better" Rose said slowly. "I'm not really sure. When will you come?"_

_"The minute your Sergeant Martine tells me where you are."_

_"Oh. Right" he heard some movement again. "Dad needs to know where to pick me up."_

_"Mr Darcy? Please come to the sixth, we're by the smithy."_

_"The one on the old marketplace?"_

_"The same. You know how to get here?"_

_"Not a problem" he sighed with relief. "Is Rose fine? She sounds a bit..."_

_"Yes, most probably a case of sniffles. But you should bring her some dry clothes, and take a blanket or two for the car. And a raincoat, because it's awful here today. Also, we'd need to see her documents and some confirmation that you're her lawful guardian. How soon can we expect you?"_

_"I'll just gather the things and be there in ten, fifteen minutes, tops. Thank you." he clicked the red circle on his phone and sighed deeply. "Georgie, please find me two, no, three big blankets. I'll need them for Rose. Take also Rose's purse and start the car and get the heating running. I'll gather some clothes so she can change... And you" he turned to still-scowling Anne. "you'd better start packing. That's it. Done. End of line. You are out."_

_She made a noise of protest, but he muted her mentally and ran up the stairs, swiftly entering Rose's room. A long-sleeved black t-shirt, a jumper, a fleece jacket, a pair of tracksuit bottoms and a pair of socks were quickly stuffed into a large plastic bag. He stopped for a moment, blinking, as a stray thought left a feeling of something missing. Trousers, check, tops, check..._

_"Ah" he finally sighed. "Shoes. Where are Rose's wellies?"_

_"In the cloakroom" Mrs Reynolds answered from the door. "William, what happened? Where is Rose?"_

_"At the police station" he flew downstairs, collecting the pink-striped rubber boots from their place next to the side door. "Please prepare something hot for dinner, she's probably frozen to the bone now. We should be back in half an hour. Tomato soup. If she is already sick, soup should be better, right?"_

_Rose never got sick. Rose was as healthy as a kid who spent that much time outside could be. He had absolutely no experience with this._

_His hands shook a bit as he stuffed her boots in another bag and pulled on his own jacket. As he ran up the stairs, he saw his estate manager coming with a large box from the general direction of the kitchen._

_"Brian! Perfect, you're here. Now, Anne will be vacating the premises today. Please make sure that there is a team of appropriately strong young men ready by... let's say, nine, nine fifteen. To ensure speedy farewells."_

_He found himself suddenly hugged by the shorter man._

_"William Darcy, finally" he winced under a thump of large palm on his shoulder. "Finally. I will absolutely make sure that there is_ _**nothing** _ _that could stop her from leaving."_

_"I'm driving to Lambton right now to fetch Rose. She got caught in the rain and... well, we'll see."_

_"But she is fine? Or should I call for a doctor, too? Just in case?"_

_"Not sure how long it will take us to get her back. The police may have some questions..."_

_"I will check with a few of them anyway, in case we need one later."_

_"Better do that, yes. I'll call you when we'd be leaving Lambton. And ask someone to make sure Rose's room is aired_ _**and** _ _heated, just... just in case."_

_"Go. Fetch the kid and we'll make sure everything is ready here."_

 

#

 

_Georgiana looked at him with reproach when he tried to make her stay at home and simply moved to the passenger seat._

_"When you are at the station, I'll keep the engine running" she explained tersely. "This way the car will be warm when you bring her in."_

_He sighed and nodded._

_"Sometimes you are the more logical sibling" he said, starting the car._

_"And don't you forget it."_

_They drove up the small lane and onto the road towards Lambton._

_"William...?"_

_He overtook a small sedan._

_"Yes?"_

_"What are you going to do about Anne?"_

_He shrugged and pressed the gas pedal a bit harder._

_"I have a few ideas, and I'm pretty certain aunt Catherine won't like them" he growled. "But we'll start with booting her off the property. This had gone long enough and she had finally crossed the line. I expect she didn't believe when I told her to pack, but Brian will be more than happy to lend a hand if needed."_

_"Why do you even care what aunt Catherine likes or not?" she said softly, looking away from him. "She's been terrorising us for so long and I still don't know what it is that she holds over you, Will. Why do you allow her to walk all over you?"_

_"She is our mother's sister" he answered tersely. "And I am obliged to support her in any way I can."_

_"You didn't support Richard when uncle wanted you to give him a chance at the company."_

_"Because by that time I've learnt my lesson. I'm not entering into any kind of business arrangements with relatives. Also, he is very happy with what he does now. It's our uncle who wants him out of the army."_

_"Then why not give Anne something to do, at least? I mean, whatever, copying documents. Maybe she would have been less annoying at home!"_

_William actually snorted._

_"Can you imagine Anne at the office? I wouldn't do that to my employees, even if they do irritate me from time to time. No. I did as much as the arrangement with uncle Luis required, and I told myself, no more. Every time I gave them even an inch of freedom, they..."_

_"What arrangement with uncle Luis?" Georgiana asked quietly. "William? What..."_

_"Station. Keep the car heated, I'll be right back. I'll..." he breathed deeply. "I will tell you one day, OK? I will tell you how I managed to mess up our lives by being the helpful, dutiful and honourable nephew."_

 

_#_

 

_The station was small and smelled of broccoli, of all things. It was the same faint, stale smell he could link with his brief memories of the boarding school and some of his University buildings. It left him feeling slightly apprehensive - as if he was heading for a talk with the headmaster - and not one as kind as the one managing Rose's school._

_"Afternoon" he turned to the duty officer. "I'm William Darcy, I'm here to pick up my daughter..."_

_"You have to sign the entrance book" the woman informed him brusquely. "And I need to see some ID. And the kid's ID, so I can verify that it's actually the right child."_

_He signed the log, produced his driver's licence and then handed her Rose's passport, which she took closer to the lamp, mumbling something at the same time._

_"Can I please see my daughter? She didn't sound so well over the phone."_

_"Sure, sure. Your licence and the passport, here. Sarge?!" she shouted down the corridor. "A Mr Darcy for you."_

_"Let him in."_

_"Third door" the officer pointed with a nod and opened the small gate for him. "You took your sweet time getting here, the kid is so sick soon the whole station will be ill."_

_"Excuse me" was the only thing William managed to say as he strode towards the room pointed out to him. Her face seemed vaguely familiar, but so did half of Lambton, after all, so he didn't really focus too much on that. Later._

 

_#_

 

_The room was small and warm, but he wasn't paying much attention to his surroundings - or the policewoman who had let him in - he had his eyes only for blanket-wrapped Rose_

_"Dad!"_

_His daughter smiled from her place on a couch, by the radiator, but it was a wobbly, red-nosed kind of smile that told him she had gone through quite a lot of tissues already._

_"Rose, ducky, how are you feeling?"_

_"Just a runny nose" the policewoman waiting with Rose assured him, but his daughter didn't look all that wonderful. "She can change in the back room, if you'd brought her..."_

_He was already handing Rose the bag with the clothes he prepared._

_"I have your hairbrush, too, and a towel, just in case. And your wellies, so that these socks stay dry."_

_"Thanks, Dad" she sneezed again and searched desperately for the box of tissues. "God, I hade gold."_

_"Go and change, imp, and we'll be going home. Brian is looking for a doctor who can come to the house today."_

_Rose coughed, sneezed yet again and slowly stood up, picking up the bags._

_"I need to talk to your dad, young lady. Change and come here to sit by the heater until we're done, OK?"_

_"Yes, Sergeant Hanners."_

_Rose definitely looked and sounded sick._

_**Oh, boy. The singing contest. She will be so disappointed.** _

 

#

 

_As Rose changed, he was asked to produce their documents yet again and then to fill in some paperwork that Sergeant Martine deemed necessary. She hovered next to him for a moment as he wrote an explanation of the event and provided timing and place, then asked him for Rose's custody documents and went to make a copy of them for the file._

_"That family member who drove her to town" she started cautiously, handing him back the originals. "Are you sure your kid should be around her?"_

_"What do you mean?"_

_He had no plan to have Anne anywhere near Rose after that day, but who knew what the policewoman meant by such veiled allusions._

_"Rose said an aunt drove her to town and left her here without all her things. It's not jungle or wilderness, but still, it seems pretty irresponsible..."_

_He looked at her for a moment, searchingly, but she seemed quite honestly worried for Rose, and not fishing for intimate details of his family life._

_"It was Rose's aunt, my cousin, yes. I had a talk with her today and she won't be driving Rose anywhere any time soon."_

_"A cousin, I see. And is she staying with you? I mean, is your daughter in constant contact with her?"_

_William pressed his lips into a thin line._

_"She was. Staying with us, I mean. This is changing as of today. She is packing now."_

_"Very well. I hope there is no reason to worry then" she frowned. "Other grown-ups in the same house? Someone who may be further risk to young Rose?"_

_"I assure you, I'm definitely planning to prevent any future interaction with Anne. Otherwise, well..."_

_"Dad? Are you saying aunt Anne will no longer be living with us?"_

_His daughter stood in the door to the office and looked at him with a frown._

_"Come here, imp" he pulled her closer and hugged. "You're correct. When we get back, you will go up to your room and I will check if aunt Anne is done packing her things. Just to make sure she can leave today. I think it's time we scaled down the 'closest family' to actual closest family, hm?"_

_He could feel his daughter nodding._

_"Thank you so much, sergeant. I assure you, I will do everything to ensure Rose's safety."_

_"I hope so, Mr Darcy" the policewoman smiled and patted Rose's shoulder. "In case there is any... further problem, related to what happened today, please do contact us. You too, Rose. Here's my card, one for you and one for your Dad."_

_He frowned, looking at the two pieces of paper in Rose's hand._

_"What do you mean?" he felt his throat constrict._

_"Only what I said. You must understand, Mr Darcy, we see a lot of_ _**different** _ _cases when the family is involved. Even in Lambton, I assure you. We have experience... and it says cases like this are prone to escalate."_

_"Thank you. I think. Rose? Your raincoat. Let's go to the car, ducky."_

_He helped her to fasten the lapels of the waterproof cover and walked her out, passing by the duty officer, who yet again was watching him with annoyance. He happily ignored her. Rose was now the priority._

 

####

 

Georgiana propped Mina up in the car and pulled the raincoat off of her, dropping the lurid yellow plastic to the floor.

"Blanket, here. Sit on it, I will wrap you and then we can fasten the seatbelt. And another on it. And your legs. William, get inside and start the engine again, I don't like to keep it going without a driver at the wheel."

Dad dropped the bag with her wet clothes on the seat beside him while aunt Georgiana hugged her close and strapped herself next to Mina.

"If you want to sleep, just lean on me. You'll be more comfortable like this."

Mina's head was way too heavy for conversation, but there was something she knew she had to say. She closed her eyes to focus on it.

Dad started the car and they drove through darkened streets and rain. The car purred softly and the heating vents made a quiet, sea-like sound. It was so warm, finally.

That thing she was supposed to say, it was coming back.

"Aunt Georgie?" she whispered, leaning on the helpful shoulder.

"All right? Do you want us to stop?"

"No... Fine" she licked her lips and coughed. "Do you think aunt Anne is crazy?"

Dad snorted.

"Why are you asking, darling? Did she say anything when you were in her car?"

Mina tried to get her thoughts together.

"She said..." a momentary loss of focus "...that if I obey her, everything will be fine."

"M-hm. And what was that about?" aunt Georgiana sounded calmly interested. Mina coughed again and felt as if something was tickling her throat. Which made her cough again, and again.

"About the wedding. She said that if I cooperate, she will remember it after the wedding."

"Rose, what are you talking about?" Dad's voice was anxious.

"She said she would be, you know. My new mother."

The car slid to the side a bit. Dad was gripping the steering wheel with both hands.

"Your  _what_ ?" aunt Georgiana was suddenly looking her straight in the face. "Rose, what was she talking about?!"

Mina tried to concentrate.

"She said she would be marrying Dad by New Year. And that you, and me, we have to stop being funny, because we aren't. Funny. She doesn't think we're funny. And that we are not cute. I think you are cute, aunt Georgie."

"Rose, sweetie, what else did she say? Why would William marry her?"

Mina breathed slowly and felt the tickle spreading.

"She said he owes them and she owns him. But how can she own Dad? Nobody can own another person!"

"Oh, that will be sweet" Dad said in a rather ugly voice. "I will have to... Well. Let's see at home."

"Did she say anything else?"

Mina frowned.

"She was repeating that there will be consequences if I do something she doesn't like. And that I would not be going to study in the Netherlands. And that she would make you transfer me to another school."

"Rose" Dad said, his voice on the border of a growl. "I will not be marrying her, whatever happens. She is leaving the house tonight. Brian is making sure she will. And I would not be marrying her anyway."

Mina coughed again.

"But why was she saying these things?" she heard her voice break. "She was scary!"

"Because she thinks aunt Catherine could have made me do it" Dad said after a moment of silence.

"She said you had a  _contract_ with them. That she was going to sign a contract with  _me_ . About me being..." she coughed again. "About me being her  _daughter_ . And that we will make an agreement that I would always listen to her."

Dad switched something on the steering wheel and a quiet phone signal filled the car.

"William? Is Rose OK?"

"No, she is not. We're leaving Lambton right now, so whoever you've managed to find, please ask them to be at the house as soon as possible. But I also need you to go and oversee Anne's packing. Make sure she isn't taking half of my library and don't let her go into my study, under any circumstances. If she claims she left something inside, it can wait until I get back."

"She isn't packed, William. And your aunt..."

"I expected as much. Keep them contained for the time being. Put two or three of the bigger boys outside their rooms, just to make sure they are not trying anything smart. I'm done with being kind, dutiful and forgiving, dammit."

"Yes, boss!"

Dad thumbed a button.

"Now, let's get you home, imp. Bed, doctor and at least a week home, I suppose. When is the competition?"

Mina leaned her cheek on aunt Georgiana's shoulder. It was so  _cool_ and nice.

"On the twenty... something. But I need to  _practice_ " she grumbled.

"You will have plenty of time to practice" Dad said simply. "Once you get better, I can... I can look for a singing teacher. If you want one."

Mina closed her eyes and hummed.

"We'll see" she said finally and burrowed closer into aunt Georgiana.

"We'll see. I'll start calling and I'll explain the situation..."

"M-hm."

For a blessed, warm and quiet moment, Mina could only think about getting up the Pemberley stairs to  _her_ room, into  _her_ bed. And then being fed medicine and sleeping. And then getting better and going back to  _her_ school. It seemed so obvious, so simple and rather...

...ah. No. Rose's room. Rose's bed. Rose's school.

Mina would be going  _home_ any day now, whenever Mom called.

Why hasn't Mom called yet?

Mom should be here.

Mom was always there when Mina was ill.

She coughed again.

Her throat ached with every cough but she couldn't stop them.

She leaned more heavily on aunt Georgiana.

 

#

 

_William could only focus on the road. One thing at the time. He had to separate his feelings from the issue at hand. He had to keep them going home. He had to get them home. He could not allow himself to think about Anne or about the danger_ _**he** _ _had put Rose in, if indirectly._

_He had to put it aside right now or he would have to pull over and step out of the car for some air. There was no time for that right now. He had to focus._

_Georgiana leaned closer and touched his shoulder._

_"She's too warm" he heard her say. "I don't like it."_

_Well, neither did he._

_One more mile._

 

#

 

_House was full of shouting, angry people. Somehow with only Anne, Brian and three estate workers participating, they managed to make enough noise to fill the entire mansion. Most of the noise came from Anne, who, somehow, turned out to be rather combative. It was a bit of a surprise for William, who would have never suspected her of being that active - or that passionate about anything._

_She apparently was._

_At full volume._

_He and Georgiana quickly ushered Rose upstairs, where he left his sister to take care of his daughter and left to deal with the immediate problem._

_He had apparently guessed correctly._

_"Yeah, we stopped her at the door. Just after your call" Brian was sporting a bruise on his left cheek. "She got me by surprise."_

_"Well, I think you are not the only one. Rose is now scared of her, which isn't helping with her fever."_

_"The doctor will be here in ten minutes, tops. Now, can we deal with this... mess?"_

_"Gladly."_

 

####

 

_Rose was shivering despite the fact that she was sitting in bed in her sweats and was covered with the duvet. Georgiana barely knew what to do to help her, but thankfully Mrs Reynolds came to her rescue, bringing a tray with soup, tea and milk._

_"Now, the little one should drink a lot. That much we can decide without waiting for the doctor. Can you eat some soup, Rose?"_

_Rose nodded slowly._

_"It shouldn't be too hot if you have trouble with swallowing, but it's just a bit warm, to make sure you are warmed from the inside. And I think I'll run you a nice bath, once the doctor leaves, so you can get properly warm. For now, tea - with milk, yes. And the soup._

_Rose managed to eat a few spoonfuls of soup and drink half a cup of tea before her throat was hurting too much to let her swallow another sip. Fortunately, that was exactly when the doctor arrived and was guided to her room, across the chaos of the packing and William pushing Anne's suitcases down the stairs, to the main entrance._

 

#

 

_"It's not bacterial, thankfully, so no antibiotics" the pudgy little doctor said, after listening to Rose's breathing and checking her throat. "Just rest, pain medication and anti-fever syrup, lots of fluids and inhalation. Please buy these as soon as possible, and then start the first dose today. If in three days there is no change, call me. If she develops higher fever, the cough changes or she starts complaining of chest pains, call me. Day or night."_

_"Thank you, doctor" Georgiana collected the prescription. "Any home remedies you would suggest? Ginger tea?"_

_"That can help, definitely. But let it cool slightly and add honey and lemon, this will help a bit to soothe her throat. In general, any fluid will do - weak tea, watered juice, even broth. Just as long as she drinks at least two litres. She will be sweating a lot, so she will be needing much more water than usually. And buy some of... these" he added a note on another piece of paper "for dry cough. Five a day. It will help to keep her throat soothed. This is... for the nose, and this to calm down her cough, if she can't sleep. Don't give unless she actually needs it. Don't let her run around or go outside too early, especially in this weather."_

_She watched her niece for a moment in worry._

_"She's never sick" she said slowly. "I have no idea what to do."_

_"Basically, for the time being, unless she wants to run outside, eat ice cream or scream, go with what she says she needs. Here" he handed her an additional piece of paper. "Follow this general schedule of medicines and she should be fine by the end of next week."_

_"Thank you" she said with a bit of apprehension. "What should we look for, what to pay attention to...?"_

_"If her cough gets deeper and she coughs up yellow mucus, call me. That will mean it had turned bacterial and I'll have to add antibiotics. For the time being there is no reason to do that... oh, I suppose since she's not ill often, you wouldn't have a nebuliser. You can buy one in the pharmacy in town" he glanced at his watch "it should be still open. I know it will be a bit of a cost, but it will make it much easier for her."_

_He added another note on the medicine schedule._

_"That would be all. I am available under this number" he handed her the whole set of papers, including his business card. "If there is anything worrying in Rose's symptoms, text me or call me, I'll try to answer even if I can't be here quickly."_

_"Thank you" Georgiana tried to smile. "Can we find my brother? He'll need to hear it, too, just in case."_  


_#_

 

_William, who had just been speaking to the two estate workers posted outside Anne's door, received the summary with a slow nod and they were soon back in front of Rose's room._

_"I gave her something for the fever" the doctor said, pulling on his coat. "Her temperature should drop soon - can't say when, kids react to this differently, but it will be good if you make a note of the time. As I told your sister, call me, any time."_

_"How bit is the risk it will turn worse?"_

_"I'd say, next to zero - a classic case of taking a chill in this weather. And I suppose she had some exhausting days just prior to today, September hits some kids hard. New subjects, changing daily routine, preparing for competitions and so on..."_

_"Rose was trying for a singing competition" Georgiana interjected. "Could that..."_

_"If she practised too much, she could have strained her vocal chords, plus today she got stuck in this weather, so all of these together were, well, contributing factors. Each of them separately wouldn't have done much."_

_"Thank you" Will's voice was gravelly as he shook the doctor's hand. "Georgie, are you up to driving to Lambton for the meds? My car, obviously..."_

_She grimaced._

_"Yeah, I can take the tank. You take care of the mess here."_

 

#

 

_He sat with Rose as she lay there, panting and coughing. Georgiana had gone to the pharmacy, promising to do some additional shopping on her way back - Rose's favourite apple juice and vanilla pudding, just in case she wanted to eat something. Mrs Reynolds was already in the kitchen, setting up to make broth (in his private opinion, it would be enough for a small army, not only for a small teenager) and all he could do was to hand Rose her tea and to make sure she didn't spill any on herself._

_She looked so small, suddenly. She was fourteen, halfway between a kid and an adult, but somehow he couldn't really stop thinking of her as his little girl. She was small - not even a bit of Darcy genes made its way to that part of th-- her looks. He knew how frustrated she was sometimes when her taller classmates played basketball over her head - and her outstretched hands. That was the main reason he encouraged her to take up horse riding - as a sport, it was one discipline that actually required the participants to be small and light and he could safely afford the cost and the time needed if it let her have an area in which she could prove herself._

_As she fell into uneasy sleep - he hoped that the anti-fever syrup administered by the doctor would start working quickly - he watched her flushed face, short-cut hair spread around her head like a black halo, lips catching air in small gulps and he felt the most helpless - or the second most helpless - in his life._

_He could vividly remember the day when her cry woke him up - and he noticed the other half of his bed was empty and already cold - and he thought for a moment, that while_ _ **she**_ _was up, why couldn't she keep the girls quiet. But as the cries intensified, he finally strode down the corridor and opened the door - maybe with unnecessary force - and started to ask that exact thing._

_And there was nobody in the room, but the tiny, crying girl in one of the cots._

_His hands shook as he picked her up, murmuring silly things about finding mummy and Mina and going for a walk, while she cried piteously into his pyjama top._

_With every step, he felt more and more uneasy. Lizzy was nowhere to be found. It wasn't the first time that world did something unexpected - but it was the first time_ _ **she**_ _did something unexpected - and he had no way of preventing it, no way of turning it back. He wasn't sure he could actually process what had happened, yet. Even after walking the whole length of the house, all floors - with Rose falling asleep halfway through - he was still hoping Elizabeth was somewhere nearby, maybe washing Mina, or feeding her, or whatever else she could be doing. Only when everyone was finally up and about and Mrs Reynolds brought him a letter she found on the main hall table, he had to accept that they were gone._

_The words of that letter were cut into his heart forever._

 

_**William,** _

 

_**I can't live like this anymore.** _

_**We aren't really meant to be together.** _

_**I'm sorry it took me so long to see** _

_**that we're destroying each other.** _

_**Do try to be happy. For Rose's sake.** _

 

_**E.** _

 

 _He shuddered every time he re-read it. Destroying each other? It took him several weeks to understand what she meant, even if it did seem she had made it overly dramatic. At least he discovered what the_ _ **lack**_ _of Elizabeth meant. There was nobody sitting late in the night in the nursery, with a laptop and some piece of code to conquer - and watching the children at the same time. There was nobody late at night in the kitchen, brewing herself a tea and heating the milk for the girls. There was nobody who didn't have to work in the morning, so they could get up and check what the girls were doing in the middle of the night._

_Day by day he noticed how much of her time must have been taken by the girls - simply because there was now nobody but him to be with Rose - and he was coming slowly to the conclusion that he had, in fact, failed to participate enough in their care. Once the weather turned and he had to dress Rose warmly for the first time - including multiple layers, taller boots and a coat - he did actually break down, just a bit, and admitted to himself - and Rose - that most probably he hadn't been the best life partner around._

_No wonder she had felt unhappy. What he was wondering sometimes was why she had stayed even that long._

 

#

 

_Georgiana came back with the medicines and they woke Rose up enough for her to swallow the first set and drink some more tea. Once she was asleep again, he asked Georgiana to stay with her for a moment, while he dealt with the unavoidable fallout of the situation with Anne. He knew very well she wasn't planning to leave the house, despite the fact that most of her things were now packed. She would be looking for a way to weasel out of this._

_As he rounded the corner of the corridor, he found his aunt waiting for him already._

_"What kind of foolishness is this?" she demanded. "Why are you removing Anne from the house?"_

_He steeled his spine a bit._

_"Because Anne is an irresponsible idiot" he said calmly. "She left Rose in town with no means of getting back home, except for walking, in this rain. I don't want her around my daughter."_

_"How dare you! William, this is no way to treat_ _**family** _ _!"_

_"My_ _**family** _ _is Georgiana and Rose"_ _**And** _ _... "You and Anne are mainly just living here, and, by now, the only thing keeping me from kicking you out was the contract. Now, I expect Anne - actually, scratch that. I expect both of you to be packed and ready to go by nine o'clock. I've wasted enough of my life trying to appease you, fulfil my supposed debt to my family and cater to your whims about Anne marrying me. Now_ _**you** _ _have breached the agreement - or rather Anne did, which comes to the same result. Leave the house,_ _**both** _ _of you. At quarter past nine I will ask Brian to escort you to the car, whatever you will be wearing and however much you'll have packed by that time. Goodbye, aunt Catherine."_

_"But, William!"_

_He turned on his heel and strode down to his study, his aunt following him, making surprised and angry noises. He would have happily tuned her out, but as he sat behind his desk, trying to find the phone book he wanted to add the doctor's name to, she entered and started berating him for his unkind behaviour._

_"Aunt, please, stop. Because of what Anne did, Rose is now ill. Do I have to explain any further, or will you just accept the fact that I don't wish any of you to be present in this house by the end of the day? And that I have full legal right to do that finally?"_

_"Rose is not ill" his aunt snorted. "That girl is probably just faking to get more attention."_

_"Well, if she's faking, she's good enough to fool the doctor. And the thermometer."_

_"Oh, really. A glass of tea fools the thermometer."_

_"Not when the person who has the fever is asleep" he retorted angrily. "Really? You are arguing with me that Rose isn't as sick as I know she is, because what, you would have to admit that your daughter had messed up and now the contract is null and void?"_

_"William!"_

_"Aunt. This is simple. Either you go, or Brian will help you. You have until nine o'clock to pack, organise a place to stay - don't even start, you can afford the hotel, I know the state of your finances perfectly - and get the hell out of my house!"_

_She sat there, lips pressed into a thin line, watching as he found the phone book, made a note of the doctor's number and then opened his laptop._

_"Really, nephew!" she finally exploded, after stewing in silence for several minutes. "How can you treat your eldest relation like this!?"_

_"Exactly how am I treating you? I've accepted my responsibility, fed you both, hosted you and even made sure Anne's car is correctly maintained. Now you will have to do it yourselves. You are grown-ups, you will manage. It is still better than you deserve, after the way Anne attacked Rose..."_

_"Will?" Georgiana's breathless interruption made them both turn to the door._

_"What's wrong? Is Rose worse?"_

_"Ah... no, this is not about Rose. Or, rather, not exactly."_

_William frowned._

_"What is going on?"_

_"Will..." she breathed slowly to steady herself. "I need Charles' phone number."_

_"Georgiana!"_

_"I have to call Jane. She needs to call... Lizzy" she paused. "Because your daughter is asking for her mother."_

_He grabbed the edge if his desk to avoid showing them both how much his hands were trembling._

_"What? Why would Rose ask for Elizabeth?"_

_Georgiana slowly combed the errant strand of hair behind her ear._

_"This isn't Rose, Will."_

_"How come it isn't Rose?" he stood up slowly. "I think I... I know my own daughter!"_

_"Well" she hissed, inhaling slowly. "This is_ _**your daughter** _ _. Just not_ _**Rose** _ _."_

_William shuddered, leaning on his desk for support._

_"This is not Rose?" he asked slowly._

_"No."_

_"This is Mina?"_

_"Most certainly."_

_"Dear Lord" he rubbed his nose. "No wonder she was so wary of horses! I'd been expecting her to be in the saddle three weeks ago!"_

_"What!?"_

_"Aunt, please" he closed his eyes. "God. Mina. Are you sure?"_

_His sister shot him an impatient look._

_"Definitely. She just told me. Now, can I please have the number? It is the only way to get the message to Lizzy, you know."_

_He gritted his teeth and handed her his mobile._

_"I'm going to kill Charles" he said, squeezing his eyes shut. "After you talk to him."_

 

####

 

"Charles, your phone!"

"Answer it, I'm covered with grease!"

"It's William!"

"I can't pick it up now!"

She sighed and pressed the green button.

"Jane here. Charles has a kitchen catastrophe on his hands..."

"Jane? It's Georgiana."

"Georgie? Why are you calling from Will's phone?"

"I... I need to talk to you. Actually, no.  _You_ need to talk to your sister. And make her come to Pemberley immediately. Mina is asking for her."

Jane sat on the stairs.

_That means William knows..._

"Jane?"

"I'm here. Why is Mina asking for Lizzy?"

"The very fact that you don't sound all that surprised by the fact that it's  _Mina_ , I can guess you've meddled in this whole affair. Which makes me officially your number one fan. Anyway. Mina has caught a cold and isn't feeling very well. She's been asking for Lizzy since she woke up."

Jane sighed.

"Do you want Lizzy's number, or should I call her?"

"Do you think she will pick up if she sees Will's number, or mine?"

"Well, if she still has them on her phone... But I guess it will be better if I call her. I'll send you her number anyway."

"Thank you, Jane. Just, you know, be quick? And if she needs to call, it may be easier for her to call  _me_ , so I suppose you should write down my number..."

 

####

 

_Jane had steeled herself against Lizzy's expected reaction. She had had a month to prepare for the moment when her sister would learn of her meddling, but it still hadn't been enough for her to feel in any way comfortable with the idea of telling her she'd have to meet William in a few hours._

_Elizabeth was not answering her phone. Even worse, her phone went dead after a few calls. She could only speculate that Lizzy had let it fall on something soft and so missed the buzzing. It wouldn't have been the first time that Lizzy's hobbies obstructed the communication lines - the number of occasions on which she had to dig her phone from the mass of sewing or knitting could not be smaller than ten._

_Jane chewed her lip for a moment._

_Skype. If Elizabeth was sewing, she would hear the annoying ringing. And, whatever else happened, she would have to sit at her computer at some point, so she would see the missed calls. Probably even before she would find her phone._

_She clicked on the Skype icon and listened for the "no answer" signal for a few seconds._

_Again._

_Again._

_Again._

_"Jane? What is wrong?" Charles' hands landed on her tense shoulders. "Why was William calling?"_

_"It wasn't William" she sighed. "It was Georgiana. Mina is sick and asking for Lizzy."_

_"So, the secret is out" he said slowly. "I hope they will do something about that mess now, or so help me, I will push them both into a wardrobe and block the door with a chair until they are done talking. I love him like a brother, but he can be thick sometimes. Do you know... did I tell you what that idiot is doing? He's building a new house. A new, perfect house for a big family. He doesn't_ _**need** _ _one that big, well, not right now, but he is still building it. Without even realising what it looks like to someone like me, who knows the whole situation. And your sister is no better. She may be the scariest, smartest programmer I've met and a magician of screwdriver and soldering iron but she is an idiot when it comes to relationships."_

_"Well, they are well matched then" Jane said, trying not to sound too cutting. "Except for the fact that they are too stubborn to talk to each other and that there are people around them paying the price. Starting with the girls."_

_"Not to mention us" Charles leaned closer to her, kissing the top of her head. "I am really fed up with having to leave the kids with the babysitters every time we visit William."_

_"We could have just ignored the whole secrecy thing and taken them with us one day, finally" she said with a huff. "We could have stayed in Lambton and you'd only drive up to the house, and I'd take Rose..."_

_"And still someone would have had to watch the kids."_

_She shrugged._

_"Well, that's all done. They will have to meet and switch and... And then everyone will know."_

_"I wonder what your mother will say."_

_She couldn't suppress a shudder._

_"I don't want to even speculate. This... it will be a mess. Of my doing."_

_"_ _**Our** _ _doing. And it would have been an even bigger mess if they had been allowed to continue in the current manner. Imagine them waiting until the kids were eighteen!"_

_"Yeah. That said, I need to call her..."_

_She clicked Skype again._

_Suddenly, there was an answer._

_"Jane? What's wrong? Are you asleep in front of your laptop? Why were you calling me? Seven times...?"_

_"Hi, Lizzy" Jane managed to squeeze out of her throat._

_"_ _**Jane** _ _?"_

_"Um. Liz, can you take a few days off, like, right now?"_

_"Can you tell me what this all is about?"_

_Jane squirmed._

_"I... I'm kind of afraid" she admitted finally._

_"Hmm..." Lizzy's eyebrow wandered up. "Would that be something related to my cheesecake that someone had sat on during the last picnic?"_

_"What? No!"_

_"OK. So maybe about someone scuffing the muffin tin I specifically ask everyone to keep away from?"_

_"That was Lydia."_

_"OK, fine. So maybe it is about getting my daughters to go to the same camp and then them switching places?"_

_"Wha..."_

_"Hi, Aunt Janey" Rose waved from behind Lizzy. "It kind of... You know. Came out."_

_Jane groaned and hid her face in her hands._

_"I mean, Jane, I kind of understand. And I'm happy that I managed to meet Rose" she hugged the girl, pulling her closer. "But that was one nasty move, you know that?"_

_She could only nod._

_"Is that all?"_

_"I'm afraid not. It turns out the other side of the exchange now knows, too. Mina told Georgiana - she's sick and really needs you to be there, you see."_

_Lizzy shook her head and swallowed visibly._

_"I... Jane, I was going to call him this weekend, but I'm not... I'm not sure I'm ready."_

_"Mom?"_

_"Come on, Lizzy. It's Mina. Mina who had never spent an hour alone when she's sick. Mina who can barely stand_ _ **me**_ _when she's sick."_

_Elizabeth groaned._

_"Yes, I know. I know. Just let me... we have to pack. And to call the school on Monday. And..."_

_"I'll call the school" Jane offered quickly. "You put me as one of Mina's contacts after all."_

_"Thanks, Jane. Please tell them..."_

_"Family emergency. I'll be convincing. Don't you worry, just, go."_

_"Do you have Georgiana's current phone number? I should have the old one somewhere in my contacts, but I suppose she might have changed it since..."_

_"Yeah. You have it in the chat now. Good luck, and call me from the road whenever you need to talk. And text me once you arrive!"_

_"I will, Janey. Thanks."_

_"Sorry for the mess, Lizzy. But..."_

_"Yeah. I know. I definitely needed a swift kick to my pants."_

_"Happy to provide it, finally."_

 

#

 

Rose was watching Mom talking quietly on the phone. There were broken sentences she could hear, but nothing definite. She tried to pick her clothes from the small heap of things taken from the dryer, but then she noticed the futility of the task and just sat on Mom's bed, looking at  _Mina's_ clothes. The next person to wear the thick cotton jumper would not be Rose Darcy. It would be Mina Bennet, the actual real Mina Bennet. Mom would be getting  _her_ daughter back and Rose would be going back  _home_ .

This left an ugly, angry taste in her mouth, like from crying for too long.

Mom was standing by the window, leaning on the sill, forehead on the glass.

"Mina's caught a cold" she said quietly. "Like usual in autumn. I'm used to it. But it seems Georgiana is panicking a bit, and Mina... I've always sat with her when she was sick" she sighed. "Pack just a small bag, I suppose your own clothes should be enough for the two of you, especially if Mina is sick. Take something you think she'd want to wear on the way back. Oh, I really hope the school will not try to pry when Jane calls them because I'm not sure how to explain  _this_ to anyone."

"How are we getting there? The station is in Matlock, and that like eight miles from the house!"

"Darling. I've lived in that house for over a year, I know perfectly well where the nearest train station is. Also, despite what you may think, I am capable of driving a car. I just choose not to. And I've driven all the way from Derbyshire to London with Mina screaming in the back seat, by myself. I hope you will be making less noise than she did."

Rose made a doubtful face, but shrugged finally.

"I don't understand not wanting to drive. Dad  _loves_ driving. I always wanted to learn and to get my licence as soon as possible."

"Ah-ha."

"Dad promised me he will let me drive the car that aunt Georgiana used when she was at school."

"Ah-ha."

"And uncle Richard said I could take that additional course at the military base..."

"What?!" Mom looked up from her own packing, eyes wide.

"He said there are advanced courses..."

"God, no. Can't even listen... OK, Rose, let's put it plainly. I  _hate_ driving. I'm a grown-up who didn't grow out of the carsickness, and I can get sick even if I'm a driver. So, we'll get to Pemberley, but not as quickly as some others would. I will have to stop every thirty minutes or so, just to breathe."

Rose nodded slowly. That was a new bit of information.

"So, whatever you need on the way - drink, loo, just to get out and breathe - I need you to say this the moment you think about it, and not when it's more pressing than you can stand. We'll be taking A1, which means fewer places to stop on the way and we won't be able to just park anywhere. Now, go and check the fridge for anything that may go off in the next few days, opened milk and so on. I need to pack for a week, unlike you."

 

#

 

Mom's car was actually the small blue Skoda that had been parked in front of their building for the previous four weeks. They dropped Rose's small bag and Mom's suitcase on the back seat, adding Mom's laptop bag and a small picnic basket of whatever they could find that they didn't want to leave for a week or bin immediately. Including a huge box of lemon shortbread cookies that Mom had fetched from one of the upper shelves and presented with an apologetic smile.

"I baked them yesterday during the night" she said. "I thought... you know. We could take them."

"And we are taking them" Rose frowned, not understanding.

"I meant, once I spoke to your father - which was the plan two hours ago."

They buckled in and Mom breathed deeply.

"But, do you mean, we would have been driving, anyway? Why? I mean, Dad  _loves_ driving. You could have asked him to come here with Mina."

Mom blinked a few times and looked a bit lost.

"I... I kind of imagined myself undoing the wrong I did" she finally said softly. "Also, I can't imagine all of us fitting in our little flat."

"It would have been a very..."

"Uncomfortable situation, yes."

"Close quarters."

"Definitely. Now" Mom sighed. "Let's keep the chatting to a minimum. I really hate driving in London. I always think everyone is out to kill me and I can't afford to get distracted. We can put on some music if you want and, well, once we're on the highway, I'll be a bit more communicative. Just... until then, let's keep quiet, OK?"

She nodded and stayed silent, seeing Mom's hands white from tension on the steering wheel and her frown as she adjusted the position of her seat, the mirrors and then her glasses. The phone on Mom's left calculated the route and predicted their arrival time to be before midnight. They checked yet again whether the laptop bag was placed securely.

As the car was slowly rolling up the street, Rose couldn't stop herself from looking back at the door to the big, nondescript building where she had lived for the previous four weeks.

_I'm going home. But Mina..._

 

#

 

_As Georgiana rejoined them, the pressure in the room was palpable. Aunt Catherine looked like someone on the verge of apoplexy. Georgiana decided to ignore her. It didn't really matter now what she learnt. If William had decided to deal with these two at last..._

_"Lizzy will be coming sometime during the night. She doesn't want to drive without stopping, so she can't really say what hour it will be. She will be taking M1, as her navigation says it's the shortest route, but she will be taking at least five stops on the way."_

_"That girl! So fickle, so thoughtless! She should be here the minute she can! Of course, her child is not the a priority to her, we knew that much already..."_

_"Aunt Catherine!" William finally stood up and strode towards her. "I'm not sure what you are actually implying right now, but driving through a third of the country, late at night, after a working day, should not be done without consideration for rest. If... if Elizabeth is properly planning for stops right now, she is much less thoughtless than certain grown-ups I may name who still live in this house. At least for another" he checked his watch "hour or so. Now, will you go and pack, or do you think you will be able to convince me to allow you to stay? Because that's not happening. I assure you."_

_"William! I can't possibly leave now when that... that hussy is coming here! You need to be properly protected!"_

_He fell into his armchair, both hands raking through his hair._

_"Good Lord, aunt! I'm forty-two. Why do you want to protect me from the mother of my children? I don't need anyone protecting me from Elizabeth. Also, I can't really imagine what the hell you could do to protect me from her, throw yourself at her, should she look my way? Did you ever protect me from anything, actually? We both know perfectly well that you being here is entirely to your benefit and your benefit only, definitely not to mine or to anyone else's here."_

_"I've been doing it for the last thirteen years" she said, satisfaction dripping from her words. "Every letter, every tiniest package, every postcard. She sure writes a lot. But it never ever reached neither you nor Rose. I decided it will be safer for you not to have any... temptation to tell the girl about her mother."_

_She sat there so primly and properly, smiling and looking at him, expecting praise._

_"What?"_

_His voice sounded alien in his own ears._

_"I took every item she'd sent and I burnt it, obviously."_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments, cries of outrage?
> 
> (on FFNet at least one commenter said they won't be reading it until it's finished, because they can't stand the suspense ;>)


	12. The other will be there

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In short: A lot happens.  
> Long: Really a lot happens. Children are interrogated by parents, heart-to-hearts and tearful reunions and important conversations are had.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That one took a bit longer than I expected, but it's 22k words... ;)
> 
> Warning: This chapter is a reason for the rating being updated to M. No direct description of violence or sex, but definite reference to such.  
> If you wish to skip it, ignore the part of text between "I didn't notice when it stopped being fun" and "I'll think about it, OK?".

"You _what_?" Mina's voice was dull and hoarse even in her own ears.  
"Ro... Mina!" Dad was immediately next to her. "You should be in bed!"  
"I'm better. And I heard you talking. She said she had burnt everything Mom sent, right?"  
"Rude girl! You will not address your elders in that way!"  
"You are not my elder. You are just _old_ " Mina shrugged. "Dad, did she really _burn_ everything that Mom sent? Because..." she shuddered and sat on the couch, pulling on her dressing gown lapels. "Oh, Mom. _Mom_."  
"What is it, Mina?" Dad sat next to her and pulled her into a loose hug.  
"She always made everything twice" she said, tasting each word. "I mean, three years ago I got that huge quilt for my birthday - but she made two, and one day she sent the other one somewhere. And two years ago it was a crocheted afghan for Christmas. And before, there were rugs, and a cup, and photo frames. Mom makes lovely decorated frames. And for Christmas last year it was a painted plate. She said she was just practising the French style of porcelain decoration."  
"Rubbish!"  
"It's not rubbish!" Mina retorted hotly. "Mom won a prize at the London handmade fair for the quilt I got! The other one had already been sent, but it was just as lovely! Mom always said she was making two of everything because there was a little girl somewhere that didn't have a mother and had nobody around her to create things for her. I kind of thought it was some kid who got entered into, like, some kind of lottery or a charity. But it was _Rose_. Because I know she would have wanted to give us both the same! And if there were packages coming from her to Rose, what else could that have been?"  
"Rubbish! Stupid photos and so-called _handmade_ she was so enamoured of! I made sure there was no communication between you and them _at all_!" the old woman actually sounded triumphant, to Mina's surprise.  
_Is she that stupid? Did she and Anne drink some crazy juice? They both sound, like, proud to be loony. I hope that will make it easier for Dad to kick them out, but I really wish they had never been here in the first place..._  
Aunt Georgiana went rigid in her chair.  
"Does this mean that everything we've sent to Mina also was destroyed?"  
"I never got anything, like, that Mom didn't buy or make, or that wasn't from one of my aunts in London" Mina provided softly, looking up at her father, whose face suddenly became much, much paler under the remnants of his summer tan. "I think Mom could have been hiding some of that from me, but..."  
"Of course she would, but I never gave her the chance! I couldn't allow any of it to leave the house!"  
Dad very, very slowly took off his glasses and put them down on the side table.  
"Aunt" he said in such a terrifying voice that even she finally noticed. "Are you telling me that you have been destroying all correspondence between us and Lizzy?"  
Aunt Catherine only held her head a bit higher, but before she managed to open her mouth, he held up his hand, and, miraculously, she stayed silent this time.  
"Do you know" he said in a calm, very calm manner that made Mina's insides make a somersault "that at least one of the packages I prepared to be sent contained the earrings my mother - and your sister - wore on her wedding day? Rose got the pendant from the necklace that was broken, but Mina was to receive the earrings from the set."  
Aunt Catherine finally reacted. However not in the way Mina could have expected.  
"You stupid, wretched boy!" she seemed to spring out of her chair like a person half her age. The movements of her arms made Mina's head hurt as she tried to follow them. "How could you! How could you disrespect your mother in such a way! To share her inheritance with that, that, that _whore_! How could you!"  
Suddenly Mina found herself between her father and her aunt, facing the old woman with a flaming face, hot not only from the fever.  
"You will not use such language about my Mom" she said angrily, her throat scratchy from both illness and tears. "You are a terrible, old witch who loves nobody but herself. You are a bad mother and a rather awful aunt. I hate you and I hate the fact that you destroyed all these nice things my Mom made for Rose. And that you burned all the nice things that Dad wanted me to have. And you don't deserve to be called our family, ever again!"  
Her voice wobbled. She felt the oncoming sob wrench itself from her chest and threaten to spoil her great speech. Aunt Georgiana was immediately next to her, wrapping her in a blanket from the sofa.  
"You, young lady, up the stairs, to your bed. Before you manage to do damage to your poor vocal chords. Shouting is exactly what the doctor told you _not_ to do. And once you're better, you two, your mother, Dad and me are going to have a nice, long talk about... well, everything. Starting with that elaborate intrigue the two of you managed to concoct."  
She turned to her father and hugged him, holding tight.  
"Dad" she sighed. "I'm _not_ sorry we did it. I am sorry that Rose's grades are taking a hit, but..." she shrugged. "So are mine. And it was still _so_ worth it."  
"I know, ducky" he patted her back, his voice still low and tense. "We have to get this sorted out with your... your mother, once she comes. And she is coming tonight, so please, go to bed and try to sleep, or I will be getting a talking to once she learns you've been running around the house."  
"Fine... g'night."  
Mina found herself steered out of the door by aunt Georgiana, but they both paused for a moment and looked back, catching the last glimpse of Dad turning towards their aunt and his hands tightening into fists. She managed to stop aunt Georgiana from pulling her further and stepped back into Dad's study.  
"I think I remember reading once" she croaked, then coughed. "Mom wrote an article about people spying on other people for political stuff. And there was a whole big part about how messing with someone's mail is a felony. And it's like, internationally agreed and stuff, because all the countries in the European Union say that it's bad to steal someone's letters. And you stole my letters. And Rose's. So that makes you _a felon_. And you just told all of us you did it. I hope..." she shrugged. "Whatever. You are evil. And you aren't even good at being properly evil. It's like badguys from the cartoons. They always say too much. Mom makes fun of them when we watch them. She likes when they explain what they did. She always said nobody could be that stupid in real life."  
Aunt Catherine blanched. Mina couldn't believe this either was actually possible to be seen outside of a cartoon, but Dad was suddenly there and hugging her so tightly she could barely move.  
"Out of the mouth... Thank you, darling" he said softly. "I will deal with this. Now, go with Georgiana and lie down and I think I may just call Sergeant Hanners. She did, after all, offer her help, didn't she?"  
Mina smiled widely and hugged him back. Then she allowed herself to be dragged upstairs and into her bed. Being tucked in by aunt Georgiana and being able to honestly say who she was felt very liberating. In a way, every time someone said "Rose" she felt as if she was lying to them. Now she didn't have to.  
"When will Mom come?" she asked sleepily.  
"Around one, I suppose" aunt Georgiana answered and brushed a strand of hair from Mina's forehead. "Try to sleep. They will come here the minute they arrive, I'm sure."  
"It will be good to see Rose" she managed to say before the fatigue won.  
  
####  
  
William's hands were shaking.  
She had burnt his letters.  
She had burnt _Lizzy's_ letters.  
_Dear heavens, what had she done. What had she done._  
_What have_ ** _ **I**_** _done?_  
He started speaking before he even processed properly the last thought.  
"You will leave the house immediately. It's almost nine. You will go upstairs, gather the necessary clothes, go to Anne's car and leave the property. You will not come back. You will not approach me, Georgiana, Rose, Mina or Elizabeth. Or anyone from Elizabeth's family. You will not contact, call, e-mail, text, write to or in any other manner try to message any of these people. If you wish to conduct formal business regarding the immediate dissolution of my contract with uncle Luis, you will leave a message with my lawyer, at the company. Not in person. Every communication on the subject of the contract will be conducted in writing. This is the last time I intend to speak to you in my life. Is this clear?"  
She sat there, looking at him owlishly, blinking slowly from time to time.  
"You and Anne are in perfect health and have enough money to live on, in a modest manner. You should be able to afford medical care for both of you, should you require it. I'd suggest having Anne checked by a specialist. If you don't have the resources, I'm sure uncle Harry will be amenable to lending you a hand. The same conditions apply to Anne. Should I see any of you in the vicinity of the house, the office or Rose's school, I will be hiring a new lawyer specifically to follow this through to the very end. Is this clear?"  
"You can't just get rid of us like that" she said slowly. "You will lose everything."  
"I won't" he said simply, suddenly very tired. "Anne's stupidity triggered this, but you, by your own admission, had actually been actively working against my best interests all that time. Which actually means you have been in breach of contract ever since... well, the first letter you stole."  
"I didn't _steal_ anything" she hissed. "I was just..."  
"Protecting your investment - your own security. Maybe you were afraid Lizzy would have seen through you earlier? Anne definitely felt insecure in Elizabeth's presence all that time ago. Well, no matter now. Now you're leaving."  
"We will _not_. You owe us. We lost our home because of you. We lost _everything_ because of you. We could have been still living at Rosings if it wasn't for your infernal meddling!"  
"You really couldn't" he said simply, trying to be as calm as possible. "You wouldn't have been able to afford it. Uncle Luis saw it and that was why he was looking for a solution. I only suggested signing Rosings over to the foundation, I had nothing to do with the way he conducted the business."  
"You are responsible for him following through with this... this idiocy!"  
"Uncle Luis was in possession of his faculties when he signed the documents. He just didn't predict he would be dying so soon after or that his will would be tied up in legal proceedings. He didn't provide for you as he was planning, I know that. But it's still not my fault. And you are still leaving. Today. Yes, he made me take care of you in case his plans didn't work out, and they didn't, and you were properly provided for. As long as you didn't actively act against me or mine."  
She stood up and marched up to him, shaking her bony fist at his face.  
"You have no idea what I'm capable of, nephew" she said finally. "I will strip you of all your money and I will make sure to inform anyone of your conduct. You will have no professional future in this country, William. And you know perfectly well I will be more than happy to see how you scramble around trying to retain custody of your daughter, considering who is heading the Family Court in Derbyshire. _None_ of the De Bourgh family supported converting Rosings into a _museum_."  
His breath hitched, just a bit.  
"You won't be able to make Maura De Bourgh take Rose away from me" he said firmly. "You might have held this over my head for all these years, but after Anne's performance today there is no judge who will deem either of _you_ more fit to take care of a fourteen-year-old than _me_."  
"Oh, but these things still take _time_. And it would mean dear little Rose - or would that be Mina? - being dragged into all kinds of meetings, proceedings and interviews. I wouldn't even have to say much. But I could _infer_ that she would have been better off in the care of the state than in yours. And, by extension, the _other one_ , too, obviously. Who knows how well Miss Bennet's employers would react to her being accused of child abandonment. And, of course, the fact that the children switched places and none of you had noticed..."  
"Nobody will even touch Mina or Rose on the word of a person who is being accused of property damage and mail thievery" he stood straighter. "I have Georgiana as a witness of your own admission of guilt and if you even try anything it will be seen as retaliation. I'm not the naive student who signed on a crazy bet with his uncle and took it on as a binding contract because he felt guilty. I'm not the new business owner depending on others to help him network. I'm not even the man I was three days ago, who... I'm not going to bend to your wishes anymore. I hold all the aces, aunt Catherine. You're not winning this one. Leave, or I will have you removed."  
"You will hear from me, nephew" she said finally, casting a glance around the room.  
"Make it in writing" he nodded jerkily. "Goodbye, aunt Catherine.'  
  
####  
  
The car was parked when Rose woke up.  
Silence in the car finally bored her enough to make her fall asleep. Mom had looked rather stressed when they finally left London, so Rose had kept quiet, like asked. It made her nod off in less than ten minutes from the moment they entered the highway.  
Now they were at some service point - a gas station, a bar and a small shop in the middle of nowhere - and the car was parked in front of a large hot dog ad and Mom was nowhere... Ah, no. There she was, just a few feet away, sitting on a plastic chair, at the equally plastic table, her head in her hands, looking down at the paper cup in front of her.  
Rose undid the seatbelt and quietly joined her mother at the table. There was a second cup, next to Mom's, which got pushed into her hands the moment she sat down.  
"It's not a very good chocolate" Mom said softly, breathing in the vapour from her own cup. "But it's not _dismal_ either."  
"A ringing endorsement if I've ever heard one" Rose snorted and sipped the hot liquid. "Not dismal, indeed."  
"I'll make you a proper hot chocolate at some point. When it's cold and awful outside and we earn it by being chilled to the bone."  
"Will you come for Christmas? We could do it then."  
Mom sighed and took a moment to stir her chocolate with the plastic spoon.  
"I hope we can meet for Christmas" she said finally. "Definitely Mina and you should. Me... it depends on..."  
"I will tell Dad I want you both to be there" Rose suggested. "And I'm sure aunt Georgie..."  
Mom shook her head slightly.  
"Let me talk to him first, hm? We'll need to make changes to the custody agreement anyway, so we can discuss this, too. And I think we need to finally talk like adults and I shouldn't depend on you to be the middleman. Or middleperson. Whichever. You two did a lot of good work until now and now it's time for the two of _us_ to try to be better at being adults."  
_M-hm. But I'm giving you, like, three days. If you don't talk to Dad in that time, I'm doing it myself, and Mina's going to help me._  
  
#  
  
In an hour they stopped at another services, this time mainly in order to make use of the facilities. When Rose exited the toilet, Mom was checking something on her phone and she smiled wobblily, looking up.  
"I need to stock on crackers and pretzels" she said tensely. "They help. And lemon water, still."  
"Maybe it would be better to use smaller roads?"  
"No, definitely no. Highway offers less distraction. No pedestrians, no random animals, no traffic lights. Much less stressful than driving through a village."  
  
#  
  
Another stop, another gas station. This one had an actual shop and Rose wandered through it idly, looking at the magazine racks and checking soft toys. Mom was a bit pale, so she ate five big mint candies with more determination than pleasure and bought them a cup of tea each. The most Rose could say about said tea was that it was hot. Mom also dug up some weird candy-like medicine and sat at the table, waiting for it to dissolve on her tongue.  
"Ginger" she explained simply. "Helps to manage car sickness and, unlike others, doesn't make me sleepy. I used to take that older-generation c... stuff, but one pill didn't work, two made me throw up after an hour and three made me see swans swimming in the Thames upside down. That wasn't a very good experience. Also, one of the reasons I never... never mind" she sipped her tea.  
"I used to be sick when the car was smelly, or when we were on a bus and I could smell gasoline, but normally, no" Rose watched her in worry. "How bad is it?"  
"I should probably sit here for another ten minutes" Mom said quietly. "Here, take this and try to find lemon water or, even better, ginger ale. Big bottle. And pick something for yourself, too."  
Rose ended up buying two different types, just in case. And, as she wasn't a particular fan of ginger ale, a bottle of apple juice  
"Oh, that will be perfect" Mom's eyes widened. "Some of them are too sweet, some too bland, so it's always good to check a new brand. Now, give me ten minutes..."  
  
#  
  
Mom's ten minutes stretched to fifteen by the time they were in Derbyshire, but she felt reasonably well. As they stopped in Matlock, she bought herself a bottle of coke and a bag of salted popcorn snacks, which they munched on, standing in front of the railway station and watching the tiny town's lights in silence.  
"Twenty minutes to Pemberley" Mom said finally, dusting her hands off. "Rose, I..." she paused and watched another car roll by quietly. "I _am_ sorry. For what it's worth, I really am sorry for what I did. I was a kid - well, not really, but I was much too immature. And I'm not exactly sorry for doing _that_. I'm sorry I didn't push harder for reconciliation later on. I probably should have made some demands in the custody agreement, but when it was written I was in such a state of... denial, depression, who knows. It was a good thing Jane went to the lawyer's office with me and took the documents off my hands immediately, or I might have lost them on my way home."  
"And Dad just... just signed them?"  
Mom shrugged and took another swig of her coke.  
"I didn't dare ask" she said finally. "Jane said she couldn't tell me either, because she just sat in the gardens, waiting for Charles to talk to William, she was so angry - and pregnant for the first time, to boot. God, we were such _kids_. Talking to each other using messengers, and not willing ones either. I suppose they felt responsible for bringing us together, somehow. I don't see another reason why they should have agreed to this."  
Rose stole another snack and bit into it with a crunch.  
Mom rolled up the top of the bag and secured it with a paperclip.  
"Let's go. It's half past midnight and I really, really want to get there before I fall asleep."  
  
####  
  
It was now after one and he felt he could, at last, breathe normally.  
Anne and aunt Catherine were gone, finally. They made more fuss during packing - including attempts of packing books and other little details that belonged to the house - and even more when their suitcases were unceremoniously heaped into the back seat of Anne's car, instead of being taken to one of the bigger trucks available.  
Once he had the confirmation that they were past the gate, he spelt Georgiana at Mina's bedside to allow his sister to shower, eat and nap. When she looked at him questioningly, he only nodded in relief. She hugged him briefly, said something that sounded suspiciously like "thank God, _finally_!" and jogged towards the kitchen.  
Mina was sleeping, lightly and restlessly. He hoped that her earlier showing up in his study wouldn't make her much sicker than she already was. He honestly wasn't well prepared to look after an ill kid. The general knowledge of how the fever was to be managed and how he was supposed to make sure the kid drinks enough didn't help all that much, unfortunately, when it was _his_ kid. And, even worse, when it was his _other_ kid. He had no idea what Elizabeth did when Mina was sick and what Mina was accustomed to. Was she ill often? Maybe never, like Rose? Maybe it was something _they_ did that had made it worse? Maybe they could have prevented it?  
Georgiana came back around one and told him to go to sleep, but he wasn't ready yet. The way his brain was buzzing with thoughts he didn't see much chances for sleep that night, at all, so he ruffled Mina's hair and went back to his study to try and organise the documents he had pulled out in order to use during the proceedings of the evening. There were multiple files, envelopes and folders thrown around and he spent half an hour putting them to rights and relishing the fact that he managed to make use of them at last.  
He poured a finger of something stronger into a glass and sat by the window, trying to calm his thoughts and organise all the information he had learnt in the previous hours. It had been a hell of a day - beginning with Rose - Mina - being lost and now, soon, ending with Elizabeth Bennet crossing the threshold of Pemberley for the first time in thirteen years. Before he even managed to sit down in his chair there was a sound of a small-car engine going up the main drive, but he couldn't force himself to look outside. Only once he heard the big main door opening and closing and steps going up the main hall he dared to look through his own not so well shut door.  
_Elizabeth._  
She had barely changed at all.  
Well, her clothing style did change. She used to wear only creams, beiges and whites - he remembered how some of his acquaintances had called her his 'budget princess Leia', due to her penchant for off-white clothing and braided hairdos. And also due to Elizabeth's unwillingness to spend more than necessary on anything material in her life. Now, however, she was dressed in deep, warm earth tones - a russet brown light jacket, a deep orange scarf, black (flat and sensible) shoes and wine-red trousers.  
But that was the only difference he could see from that slight distance. Her hair was the same, not touched visibly by silver - he raised his hand to his temple uncertainly, tracing the strand of grey he knew was there, in striking contrast against the raven black of his hair. Her face, for the moment he saw her turning, looked drawn and tired, but barely affected by time. He remembered that she had never worn make-up - her vibrant colouring made it unnecessary - and her hair had required being pulled into a tight and strictly tied braid or it rebelled and flew around her head like an electrified auburn cloud. That much hadn't changed, judging by the way some strands had already started the process of escaping her current hairdo (two braids, very "traditional"). She had probably done them in a hurry before they left London.  
He had to admit that the whole picture did tug at his heartstrings, just a bit. Just like it used to.  
Rose looked half-asleep as she trailed after Elizabeth, obviously showing her the way to her room, and Elizabeth was so intent on their target that the only thing she stopped for was to throw her coat and Rose's jacket on one of the chairs in the hall and kick off their shoes before entering Rose's - Mina's - room.  
He managed to hear Georgiana's voice from the inside before the door was shut again, putting a thick slab of wood between him and...  
_And all the women of my life. Yes, William Darcy, you're officially screwed. If you even try to convince yourself you don't love her anymore, you're an idiot._  
He drank the rest of the whisky in one swallow.  
"Yes" he said to the empty room. "I am an idiot. But not that big. The question is then, what does she think."  
  
####  
  
Mina woke up the minute they entered and reached out to her mother.  
"Cuddle" she demanded hoarsely.  
"Oh, ducky. Just let me wash my hands. Rose, you too. Who knows what you had touched in one of these stations."  
"She's feverish" Georgiana yawned. "I gave her the ibuprofen half an hour ago, and it's getting better, but not quickly. The bathroom is through there" she pointed out. "I put fresh towels for all of you. And you" she twirled to face Rose "have a lot of explaining to do, mademoiselle. Whose idea was _that_?"  
Rose blinked.  
"Not sure now" she admitted. "It became kind of... blurry. After a month, you know, we kind of..." she shrugged. "Got everything mixed up. But I'm pretty sure I was the one who said I'd be ready to go to a boarding school if Mina could go with me, too."  
"Boarding school?" Elizabeth asked from the bathroom and Rose slowly made her way to her. "What boarding school?"  
Georgiana frowned.  
"I think Anne mentioned the general idea of sending Rose to an all-girl school, but it was just in Lambton, not a boarding school. Simply a posher school in our generally not-that-posh county."  
"M-hm, I know that one" Elizabeth splashed her face and started towelling off. "Now, Mina" she sat on the edge of the bed, still holding the piece of towel. "What were you doing, to catch such an ugly cold?"  
The ill girl blinked slowly.  
"Not my fault" she pouted. "Hug me?"  
"Of course, ducky" she pulled her child up and closer to herself. "Oh, my darling. I was _so worried_ when Jane called me. I know you hate being sick."  
"'S OK" Mina croaked. "Aunt Georgie sat with me all the time. I think I was talking stupid things."  
"She was" Georgiana whispered. "When she hit 39, she was worrying that Will would pack her in a box and send her back by train to London and demand you pack Rose in the same way, so he can avoid seeing you."  
Elizabeth shivered.  
"And I was afraid aunt Catherine would put me on fire, too" Mina informed them worriedly and promptly snored.  
Georgiana's heart constricted painfully when Elizabeth looked at her in question.  
There was no easy method to explain to Lizzy what their crazy aunt did to all the correspondence between the estranged parts of their tiny family. There was no way she was going to tell Elizabeth Bennet that Catherine de Bourgh had burned every piece of craftwork she had sent for Rose. At least, not here and now.  
Oh, Georgiana wasn't perfectly sure what would have happened _had_ these packages properly arrived to William. Maybe their contents would have been put to use - when Rose had been small enough not to question their presence - or maybe it would have been boxed and hidden in the attic, but most definitely none of them would have had the audacity to _burn_ anything that Lizzy had made.  
_She had destroyed a handmade quilt and a crocheted afghan and who knows what else. I'm not sure I want to focus too much on the fact that she is, actually, related to us. Closely. And that madness may be a genetic trait._  
"I hope she won't have _that_ dream any time soon" Elizabeth slowly lowered Mina onto the pillows and turned her on her side. "Sounds like a proper nightmare, with aunt Catherine as the main villain. I'm quite sure I would have woken up screaming if I dreamed about her feeding me chocolate or making me coffee."  
Rose yawned and shivered for a moment, curling up next to Mina's legs.  
"Now, if we let Rose go like this any longer, she will become sick, too. Georgie, where can we put her, for the night? We can organise things better tomorrow, I suppose..."  
"Don't worry. I've made a bed for Rose in my room. I've anticipated _that_ need. And I suppose you will try to sit here all night anyway, but when you want someone to take your place, you can then sleep in my bed."  
Elizabeth nodded slowly and squeezed her hand in a grateful gesture.  
"And what about, erm..."  
"Don't worry about _them_ " Georgiana smiled wickedly and quickly hugged her friend. "William threw them out, just this evening" she explained quietly. "It was all Anne's fault that Mina got sick, and he lost his patience with them both. They won't be coming back, Lizzy! They are banned from the house and property! And he finally can just tell them both to go to hell!"  
Elizabeth's sharp breath and sudden relaxation against her embrace told her the whole unvoiced story. As far as Georgiana was concerned, there was only one proper end to that tale - her brother and her sister-in-law (in spirit, if not in fact) had to talk. Soon. One to one. Properly and without trying to weasel out of it.  
"Oh, God, Lizzy" she whispered into the auburn tresses that were now tickling her face. "Lizzy, it's so good to see you again. I've missed you so much."  
She was more than ready to lure them into Will's study and barricade the door if that was what was needed to make them finally communicate.  
  
####  
  
The morning was obnoxiously bright and after spending half of the night staring at his walls William was not feeling particularly sociable. Still, sitting at the breakfast table by himself made him a tad uneasy, considering there were five more persons in the house - three of which should, at some point, make an appearance at the table.  
Mrs Reynolds ate much earlier, as was her custom, so she only handed him a plate of boiled eggs - "maybe the poor girl will eat something small" and he set the table for everyone, just in case somehow Mina felt well enough already to be up to eating breakfast.  
"Five?" Mrs Reynolds squinted at the settings. "I thought your aunt and cousin had left yesterday and wouldn't be returning, William. I _really_ hope you are not letting them back in, darling. You know what I think about that whole... arrangement."  
He blinked, surprised for just a second.  
"Ah, no" he stuttered. "No, actually... They are gone, yes. But we have visitors, and they may want to... I hope they will come downstairs."  
"You didn't warn me about guests, darling. Which room are they staying in?"  
He poured himself a cup and slowly, deliberately, added a measure of milk.  
"They spent the night in Rose's room" he said softly. "Elizabeth is here, Mrs R."  
The elderly housekeeper covered a gasp with her hand.  
"Dear girl! She drove all this way? But, why would..." she frowned. "Ah! It wasn't Rose, all this time, was it? William?"  
"You're right, as always. It was Mina, ever since she came back from the camp."  
"Oh, Lord! You should have told me! I would have made crepes! Dear Elizabeth, she always liked my crepes..." she muttered to herself, making a quick escape to the corridor leading downstairs.  
William wanted to ask her for an explanation, but before he even managed to open his mouth, Georgiana ran into the room, grabbed a piece of toast and an egg, shelled the egg quickly, ate it in three bites and ran out, saying something about Mina that he didn't hear quite clearly. Due to the egg.  
He looked at the tea in his cup and, just for a moment, thought longingly about coffee. Still, he felt he should eat something before indulging in that craving, as the day ahead promised to be hard anyway, and adding a stomach ache to it was a stupid idea. His phone chirped, pushing him into motion. No lazy weekend for a business owner, but a quick call to his office ensured all his meetings for that week would be rescheduled and a courier would be coming by every day with any documents he should review. His PA sounded slightly surprised, but being the efficient young man he was, he dealt with all the details without needing to be micromanaged.  
Two pieces of toast, one egg and a sausage later William felt he was quite ready for that coffee, so he started up the machine and added a few scoops of beans to the container. As the black shiny monster quietly whirred and crunched, he stood there, holding a cup and watching the trees outside shed apples on the lawn. The estate team would have to collect these during the day, before bees and wasps gathered. Considering Elizabeth's allergy, it would be better not to risk any being attracted to the vicinity of the house. He didn't relish the perspective of using epi-pen on her at all, and he knew perfectly well what would happen should anything decide to sting her.  
_"...can't go in there."_  
_"Mom, you have to eat something."_  
_"I don't. I can stay up with Mina."_  
_"But MOM."_  
_"Rose, I just... I'm not ready to..."_  
_"He doesn't bite."_  
_"ROSE."_  
_"At least he's vaccinated. Probably."_  
_"Rose, no. I'll go upstairs, and maybe nip down to the kitchen later, Mrs Reynolds will be merciful and feed me. She always liked me, even.."_  
He opened the door slowly, hoping he wouldn't startle her. There she was.  
He had forgotten how sweet her face looked when she stared at him. The way her eyes were just a bit more golden than actual hazel. The way her lashes never needed mascara, because they were just the right type of long, dark and thick that other women had to use a ton of cosmetics to achieve. The freckles that showed early every spring, when the first sun touched her nose for long enough. The...  
"William?"  
He blinked and shivered. She was there. Stepping away from him.  
_No, no, no._  
"Lizzy" he nodded slowly and took a step back to make way for them. "Come inside. I've just started the coffee."  
Rose sighed and pushed her mother slightly forward.  
"I'm starving. Hi, Dad" she stood on her tiptoes and kissed his cheek.  
"Hi, ducky" he hugged her slightly. "You are allowed to eat first, but then, I expect a full explanation. Of _everything_ you two did. And then I'll consider if you deserve more than just bread and water for dinner, for all the trouble you’ve caused."  
Elizabeth snorted, reaching for a cup.  
"Jane and Charles" she said simply, looking down at the coffee-maker.  
"I suspected as much" he confirmed quietly, watching her movements as she picked up the milk jug - and the sugar bowl, but that one she just handed to him, almost automatically. "One espresso?"  
"Two, please. I drove on nervous energy and then couldn't sleep very well until Mina's temperature dropped again. _And_ that armchair is not exactly the best choice for a nap, either."  
He looked down at her hair, up in a tight knot, and her bared neck, and the tired slump of her shoulders. He wanted to pull her closer, so much that it hurt. He couldn't, not really. But at least he could suggest she took care of herself.  
"You don't need to be up, you know. I will bring a fold-out camp bed and you can sleep in Rose's room. Rose can tell me everything in the meanwhile. Hm?"  
She sighed.  
"It does sound... tempting" she whispered, massaging her temple. "All right. I'll eat something and at least try to take a nap. Thank you."  
He put together a cup of coffee for himself as she sat next to Rose and started shelling an egg. In an attempt to be useful, he quickly prepared a cup of tea, too. She had always drunk tea in the evenings, saying theine actually didn't wake her up in the same way caffeine did, for some reason, despite them being the same chemical compound. And anyway, her tea was usually mostly milk, and that was exactly what he brought to the table right now.  
His hand shook slightly when he stood by her side and placed the cup in front of her and he was quite sure his smile was more of a grimace than anything else. Still, the look in her eyes when she turned her face up and to left, looking at him in slight amazement, putting her in a perfect position to, well, something they hadn't done in more time than he could remember, that look crushed his heart. She was surprised with the simple courtesy. A gesture so slight he actually never considered...  
_Oh, Lizzy. My poor Lizzy._  
She was afraid. He knew she was always apprehensive of the house itself, and what it represented - the old history, the pressure of family tradition, his attachment to the land. But now it seemed she was afraid of what _he_ would _do_. He couldn't even imagine what was going through her head - that he would throw her out? Be rude? He knew she couldn't stand direct confrontations, which was why Aunt Catherine was always winning all their arguments, but what was she expecting _he_ would do...?  
"Thank you, William" she whispered and looked down again.  
His hand hovered for a moment over her shoulder, but at the last moment he rethought that. He had to relearn the old ways of moving around her. Rose - and Mina - and Georgiana didn't mind being hugged or patted on their backs, but it seemed, looking at Lizzy's posture, that in her case it still wouldn't have been advisable.  
He made a mental note to call Charles the moment he was alone in the study. He took his place directly opposite Elizabeth and took a sip of his coffee, watching her eat in small, neat bites. Apparently, her diet barely changed in all these years. Unlike many women he had observed at various occasions, she made it look effortless - a salad, eggs, next to no bread, no sugar in her tea seemed simple enough when it was _her_ , especially since, unlike others, she didn't _moan_ about it during the meal. She just ate what she liked and thought appropriate and didn't make a production of the fact that she didn't touch sugar.  
He shuddered at the memory of countless breakfasts with Anne and Aunt Catherine, when both of them trilled and inanely discussed the details of whether Anne should eat one more toast with honey and whether it should be wheat or full grain, or maybe not honey, but jam. Rose quietly stole another egg and poured a glass of milk for herself as they sat in silence. He felt his daughter's eyes on him, but couldn't tear himself away from the woman across from him. Her face bowed, her brows drawn in a frown, she shivered from time to time, trying to suppress a yawn.  
"Lizzy" he said softly. "Go upstairs in a moment. I'll bring in the bed for you meanwhile. You'll feel better once you've had at least a nap lying down, instead of trying to keep upright."  
She nodded slowly and finished her tea.  
"Thank you, Will" she said, again, not looking up at him. "Rose, come by once you're done, take your books and see what you can do about getting these grades back up. Let's make use of that week and get all this straightened out."  
  
####  
  
He had to do something about it. The situation was unbearable. Obviously, the girls were quite happy with each other, and seemed to be rather attached - they had all that time at the camp to grow close in a way that their elders prevented them from following earlier through their stupidity. It would be almost _immoral_ to separate them again. And he knew perfectly well that letting Elizabeth go was the last thing he wanted.  
He had but a week to try to win her back.  
But first things first. The bed.  
_Oh God, Elizabeth sleeping under my roof again._  
Rose and Elizabeth were gathering the school books and hunting down the backpack that Mina had apparently left in some random place - was it just last afternoon? - so he still had a moment to prepare everything for her. He pulled the old camp bed from the closet behind his bedroom and set it up as quietly as he could in the corner of Rose's - Mina's - room, making sure not to wake the sleeping child. An additional mattress on top, a tucked-in blue sheet and a blanket were added immediately, but he felt somewhat lost in the area of pillows. He knew better than anyone that Lizzy had never been able to fall asleep without one. A quick run back to his bedroom later he had added a big pillow (cover swiftly replaced) and his own duvet. He was just straightening everything out when the door opened with a soft 'snick'.  
"Oh" was all she said, looking at him bowed over the cot. "I... I could have made do with just a blanket. You didn't have to..."  
"But I wanted to. You need your sleep, Lizzy. I'll take care of Rose's homework, don't worry. She can do it in the study."  
She only nodded mutely, already looking past him, at Mina, sleeping with her lips parted, cheeks still flushed with fever.  
"She is ill every autumn, like clockwork. Doctors say it's London, and all children have the same symptoms" she provided quietly.  
"Weakened immune system due to high pollution levels."  
"Probably. Or simply direct influence of the pollution levels and their chemical composition."  
"Disproved right now - she is sick, despite the fact that it's much cleaner out here."  
"Not necessarily. The effects may be prolonged in nature."  
"Unproven then. Until we have a control sample" he tried smiling, but she wasn't looking at him.  
"Rose is fine, don't worry. Didn't manage to damage her too much in that one month."  
He heard a small, brittle note in her voice.  
"No, one month is not enough to damage anyone. Don't worry, Mina will be up and blackening her classmates' eyes in no time."  
Lizzy groaned, sitting heavily on the bed.  
"She didn't, did she?"  
"She absolutely did. It was an interesting talk with the headmaster."  
"Oh, God. What did they try to blame it on?"  
He frowned and pulled up a chair, sitting in front of her.  
"What do you mean? They just told me that she'd picked up a fight with a known school bully, idiot who had been bothering second-graders and stealing their money. She caught the boy red-handed, roughing up some tiny kid, and gave him a shiner I would have been proud of in my school years."  
She nervously patted around her knotted hair and pulled some clasp from it, then another, as she frowned even more.  
"At Mina's school, they always link her behaviour with lack of proper parental model" she finally said. "My... ability to create a stable home for her was questioned. They blamed her volatility on..." she gestured towards herself. "Me being inadequate."  
For a moment, just a tiniest little moment, his vision was flooded with red. Someone thought that his little girl being willing to defend herself - and others - was a proof that _Elizabeth_ was a bad parent? His heart thumped louder as he caught her next words.  
"I know very well I'm less than what she needs. I just don't like hearing that repeated over and over again" she pulled out another pin and shook her head, sighing with relief. Her wild, wavy mane tumbled down to her waist and he watched - his mouth suddenly dry - as she combed through it with her fingers and then started braiding it into a thick plait.  
He had to clear his throat and breathe a few times to avoid launching himself at her and holding her as he assuredly would have done in just a heartbeat or more, should she look at him in that new, little way that meant she had been left with no help from the world whatsoever,  
And to think she still managed to bring Mina up to be such a great, strong and wise girl.  
"It's not true" he finally heard himself saying. "She's a good kid. Just a bit too impatient. But a good kid" he saw her shoot him a stern glare. "And I never told her she's not supposed to hit anyone, afterwards. Just explained the general idea of waiting until someone else throws the first punch. And I've shown her how to do it without hurting herself."  
"William!" she hissed, blushing. "I...! She shouldn't be fighting, _at all_!"  
"Why? She won't get into much trouble if she's not the one to start it."  
Elizabeth groaned and covered her face with both hands.  
"Even if she doesn't start them, finally they say she is the one responsible for them. Always."  
He blinked, slowly, looking from her to the sleeping figure of their child.  
"They blame her, even if she is not the one to hit first?"  
Elizabeth nodded.  
"And then they explain this as...?"  
"Her social inadequacy due to being a child of a single mother."  
"That's... messed up."  
She glanced at him over her fingers.  
"That's reality, William. Can't do much about it."  
He had to look away to avoid violating her personal space - and he knew very well it extended quite far from her body, too.  
"We'll see" he whispered. "You need to sleep now. You've been up more than twenty-four hours, and that's not good even for someone with more energy stored than you ever have."  
She tried to huff, but it turned into a jaw-splitting yawn.  
"It isn't. Thank you for making the bed, Will."  
Before he even managed to leave - he barely turned to Mina to check her temperature - she stripped down to a t-shirt and thighs, slipped into the bed and pulled the duvet up to her nose.  
"I'll have Rose wake you in time for supper, Lizzy. Will that be fine?"  
She nodded, barely visible below the thick cover.  
He slipped out of the room without another word. Really, a talk with Rose was more than needed, as soon as possible.  
  
####  
  
The study was flooded with light and Rose's books spread around the big working table made for additional spots of brightness. His daughter's black-haired head was bent over the French workbook and she was emitting huffs of disapproval as she filled in missing exercises.  
As he stepped behind her and tried checking the book over her shoulder, she tipped her head back and looked up at him.  
"Hi, Dad" he said simply.  
"Hi, imp" he hugged her slightly. "Now, how was the life in the big city? How was the school?"  
_How did you like your mother?_  
"London is fine, the school sucks" she said succinctly.  
"Your vocabulary seems to be affected" he smirked.  
"It sucks, there is no other way to say it" she sighed. "Mom should transfer Mina to some other place. The kids are a nasty bunch and the parents are even worse."  
"There are some not so nice kids in your school, too."  
She dropped heavily into one of the chairs in front of his desk and he sat in his own.  
"Dad. There are not so nice kids. There is even Ray the idiot. And there are kids who made fun of me because my mother is a programmer and single. So. What can we do about Mina's school?"  
He cocked an eye at her.  
"What would you say _we_ should do?"  
Rose shrugged.  
"I will talk to Mina about telling Mom how much that school actually _does_ suck. But I don't think Mom can just simply transfer her out, you know."  
He nodded.  
"I will see if I can convince her to try. It doesn't make sense for Mina to stay in this place... what is it that happens there?"  
Rose sighed and grimaced.  
"Everything, Dad. Everything."  
  
#  
  
"...and I still kind of didn't manage to learn the names of all my cousins. But once I told Mom that I'm not Mina..."  
He raised an eyebrow.  
"And when was _that_?"  
Rose looked away.  
"On Wednesday" she said finally. "I kind of, you know. Blurted it out."  
"Ah-ha" he nodded. "And when were you planning to be back home?"  
She sighed.  
"This weekend, actually. Mom was going to call you when we came home yesterday, but then there were all these calls from aunt Jane and it kind of resolved itself."  
He nodded slowly.  
"So?"  
"Well, Mom kind of wanted to show me everything. I mean I'm sure there is a lot of London still left, but we went to a park, and museums, and... well, everywhere we could."  
Her eyes were _wide_. Wide and golden, like her mother's.  
He had to keep on topic, but it was a challenge.  
"So, you like London?"  
She nodded and shrugged.  
"I'd like to go back there and see some more of it" she confirmed. "And shopping is much more fun with Mom and aunt Jane."  
"I'm sure it is" he bit his lower lip. "And... How... What do you think of your mother?"  
He _saw_ Rose think. She frowned, grimaced and then smiled.  
"I..." she began and paused, making an uncertain gesture. "I suppose I like her a lot. I'm still a bit mad at her, but I really like her."  
He felt his shoulders sag.  
"I hope you won't keep being mad at her, ducky. It was my fault, after all."  
His daughter leaned forward on the desk between them.  
"So, are you going to do anything about it then?" she asked seriously. "Because I... I kind of don't want them to... I mean, you know."  
He nodded.  
"I just need to find a way" he sighed. "I really am bad at this talking thing."  
  
####  
  
The smell was everywhere. She couldn't quite understand how it could be - she was quite alone in bed, as always, but there was something about that scent that was telling 'sleep, I'll hold you' to some deep-buried, susceptible part of her mind. She pulled the marvellously soft duvet a bit higher, burying her face in the folds and breathing deeply.  
There was something about that scent. Something she tried to define  
She blinked awake for a few seconds, looking at Mina to check if she was any better, and seeing the lack of feverish blush, she fell asleep again.  
  
#  
  
When she came to again, Mina was breathing heavily and shivering a bit. Elizabeth managed to untangle herself from the covers and, after a short search, found the needed medicine. There was even a thoughtful note from Georgiana saying that at ten Mina's temperature was normal. She checked the clock and found that it was, surprisingly, half past twelve. She had slept for three hours without interruptions - well, almost. She blinked, trying to bring up the memory that was skirting just on the edges of her mind.  
She went through automatic movements of measuring out the ibuprofen syrup for Mina. She knew that at fourteen her daughter could very well take the "grownup" version of the medicine, but she didn't wish to force the girl to swallow anything more challenging than her tea.  
She made a note of time and dosage on the same piece of paper and sat there, waiting for the thermometer to beep.  
_Well, definitely too warm._  
Mina managed to swallow both the medicine and the tea that accompanied it.  
"Mom?" she whispered. "When did you get here?"  
"Half one" Elizabeth patted her cheek. "you saw us."  
Mina nodded.  
"I just thought... you'd been a bit of one of the dreams. They were rather awful."  
"Yes, you told us - aunt Catherine setting you on fire?"  
Mina sniffed miserably.  
"Just like she did with all the gifts" she said hoarsely. "She burnt them all, Mom. Everything that Dad was going to send to me and..." she coughed and nodded. "Everything... you know."  
Elizabeth's fingers were suddenly not cooperating with her.  
"Mina, what are you talking about?"  
Her daughter frowned and swallowed hard.  
"Dad can tell you. She told us all yesterday. She said she was stealing all the letters and stuff."  
She touched Mina's forehead briefly. Still too warm.  
"Darling, are you sure...?"  
Mina nodded and leaned into her.  
"She shouted that she was protecting Dad and that's why she stole all the letters that you've sent. And I guessed that you were sending all these things to Rose. Rose was the girl without a mother, right? I thought so..." she sighed. "And aunt Catherine just... took all of these things. And she took everything that Dad had prepared for me. She just... took it."  
Elizabeth felt her heart constrict.  
"So..." she tried to put the thought into words.  
"Dad was writing to you and you weren't answering" Rose's clear voice came from the door. "And you were writing to him..."  
"And I wasn't answering" William sat on the other side of Mina's bed. "But you kept sending them anyway."  
She shrugged, tiredly.  
"I thought that even if you don't want to talk to me, I still should try, so after the first few, I just stopped writing big letters, and only put the card inside with a message to Rose. I thought that even if you didn't answer, at least I made the effort and I gave Rose the chance to..." she paused. "I wanted her to know who I was."  
Rose burrowed into her side silently.  
"Are you sure she..." Elizabeth couldn't voice _that_.  
"She was very proud of herself" he growled. "She threw it in my face, saying she was _removing the temptation_. Lizzy" he reached over Mina's duvet. "Lizzy, I wrote to you - every Christmas. Every October. I..." he sighed. "I wrote that first Christmas, I asked if you could come home. I asked... I wrote I'd be waiting, on Christmas Eve, in Matlock, for the London trains."  
She buried her face in her hands, not to allow them all to see her tears falling.  
"I've sent you an invitation to my _viva_ " she finally uttered. "It was in the middle of January. I thought you could... You could come and see what I was working on for all these months. I wrote that we could maybe go somewhere to celebrate your birthday and, and talk. I was looking at the door for half of my presentation. I hoped you'd show up and..."  
"I _am_ going to hurt her" she didn't jump, despite hearing him suddenly from such a small distance. "I am going to do everything I can to make her suffer."  
He wasn't touching her and she was at the same time grateful and somewhat sad at that realisation. It would have been too soon - and there was a rather high risk of just leaning into him and giving in to that pathetic need of being _cared for_.  
"You need to sleep, Liz" he said after a lengthy silence. "I will sit with Mina, you can go and take the bed Georgie had prepared for Rose."  
She shook her head.  
"I can stay here. I will set an alarm and check on her..."  
"Lizzy" he finally reached out and touched her hand, just with his fingertips. "You _don't have to_."  
She felt a small shiver going up that arm and she looked up, straight into these blue eyes.  
"You don't have to do it all by yourself. I'm perfectly capable of checking her temperature, even if I'm still not up to guessing it by touch. I think I can manage to give her the medicines, especially if instructions are written on this" he pulled out another piece of paper. "The nice doctor who visited yesterday apparently wrote idiot-resistant instructions, too, but we misplaced them in the chaos yesterday. And you can tell me what you do normally when she is ill and I hope I can replicate it."  
Elizabeth found herself nodding.  
"Not much. Just someone needs to be here if she wakes up with a fever. She has hallucinations sometimes, and she says her skin hurts during fever, so I try not to let it get too high, despite what some doctors say about just letting it be. And she will need a shower, or a bath. Pretty warm."  
William's fingers pressed on her hand.  
"And she will need a lot of fluids - weak tea with lemon and honey, or just lemonade with honey, room temperature or slightly warmer. And with fresh ginger. And, if you have any, some sweet pudding - vanilla or chocolate - again, room temperature. Nothing chilled and nothing sweet and no fizzy drinks. And" she yawned "come and wake me up whenever you think she's been too warm too long."  
"I promise" he said, removing his hand, leaving her feeling suddenly a bit colder than just a moment before. "Now, go. Rose will show you where. And I'll check with Mrs R when the other rooms can be made available so you don't have to sleep on these old cots."  
  
####  
  
Mina had slept calmly through the evening, so Lizzy, after careful consideration, had joined the others at the table. The dinner had been quiet and subdued, with mostly Rose and Georgiana keeping up the conversation and Elizabeth and William staying carefully quiet. She managed to catch a few fleeting glances he gave her as they both listened intently to Rose's comments on some horse event she was planning to see in the coming weeks. It was hard not to look at him too, actually.  
He had changed, just a bit.  
The shoulders of a keen rugby player were still there, no doubt. He filled the light shirt quite nicely, just like he used to do. The way he moved and the careful attention he paid to everyone around him reminded her sharply of the way he used to treat her, ever since he had learnt of her nervous reactions. Nobody had done that for her before or since except for him. And, well, Georgiana, even though Lizzy's brain didn't really register her as "taller".  
There were small wrinkles in the corner of his eyes and slight lines around his mouth. A frown line. Small indentation on his nose where the glasses sat. Tan, giving him a healthy colour.  
A shot of silver in the hair at his temple.  
Her hands tingled with the need to touch it. To trace it back, to entangle her fing...  
_Stop it, Lizzy. You are supposed to be an adult!_  
She escaped to Rose's room as soon as she could, before she managed to give in to the idiotic need to get closer to him right there and then.  
  
#  
  
She was sitting on the cot in Rose's room again, looking out of the window, watching the green expanse of slightly unregulated lawn, strewn here and there with patches of wildflowers.  
It was quite mad to be in that place again. She could see it now with new eyes - the house too large for any normal family, the grounds too vast to be managed by one person, the number of generations too heavy for just one man to carry on his shoulders.  
A sigh escaped as she considered what she had felt when she had been here last.  
At first, she had expected him to be as free as she had been. As a student, on a scholarship that gave her entry to almost any university program in the country, she was free to choose. No inheritance to help her along, but also nothing to weight her down. That was how she had drifted along once Jane had decided to accept the job offer in the Peak Country. She simply applied to whatever seemed the most interesting software engineering program there and they seemed to be quite eager to take the money she won and her innovative dissertation. That was how, unknowingly and without paying attention, she had found herself into the company of people with much more on their shoulders than just writing the best piece of working code and the most audacious essay about software development methods.  
She knew _now_ her social graces hadn't been the best at the time. Even worse, she had known it, vaguely, back then, but she had never paid attention. She looked at these people but never really thought about them more deeply, never looking behind the façade of smiling, amiable and companionable fellows that was shown for professional purposes. She never saw the tired, lonely and terribly introverted man that had somehow focused on her so completely. And even once she noticed him, she never really dug deep enough to see the actual _him_.  
She thought he'd be able to free himself from whatever it was that kept him down and occupied. She didn't understand his feeling of obligation towards his family, his employees, the staff and everyone who lived "on the estate". Even when she finally acknowledged he had more responsibilities than she had though first she still didn't want to move from "their" flat, forcing him for weeks to "commute" from Lambton to the office at the _mansion_. She resented the enforced company of his family, whom he had felt his duty to support.  
She hoped for so long that he would one day see the best way to live - to get rid of his link to that piece of ground and to run with her. To move from that place where all his family died, except for himself and his sister. To escape the feeling of being _looked at_ by all these dead faces on the walls.  
Now she knew, after spending a third of her life balancing on one leg financially and organisationally, that what she used to see as dead weight was in fact stability and support. The house that held him in one, uncomfortable and immobile spot made a perfect place for her daughter to grow up in. It allowed her to spread her wings in a secure location and then to run home for cover, should anything happen.  
She could only hope Mina could count on this place being the same for her one day.  
She hoped she didn't damage their relationship so much he would deny his other daughter access to Rose, the house and, last but not least, himself.  
She didn't delude herself thinking _she_ might be welcome in their life again, but Mina deserved the chance to have a father and her sister.  
  
####  
  
As she semi-slept the next night again in the chair in Mina's room, being forcibly ejected from it by William (once he had learnt she didn't manage to lie down) was something of a blessing. Still, after having breakfast she didn't feel sleepy enough to warrant even a nap yet. She made her way to Georgiana's room anyway, just to let the younger woman know she was up.  
She found her friend sitting in front of her pianoforte, so she quietly joined her on the bench.  
"I didn't notice when it stopped being fun" Georgiana looked down at the keyboard with a frown. "I used to love it, and now..." she shrugged. "I just play the exercises, to make sure my fingers stay in practice, but I'm not so sure I _like_ it anymore. Teaching Rose - Mina - was interesting, but..."  
Elizabeth hugged her lightly.  
"You should find a piece of music you like and try to practice that. Etudes - the actual exercise ones, not Chopin's - are boring, you know that as well as I do. Try to play some pop, or maybe some rock ballads. Whatever you'd listen to normally."  
"I can't" Georgiana cringed. "Aunt Catherine..."  
"Doesn't live here anymore, you told me yourself. Also, my dear, you're thirty-two. You're a grown-up. The only persons who can complain about your playing are the ones you'd _force_ to listen to it. And I suppose your brother wouldn't get too offended if you tried switching to slightly more modern repertoire if it makes _you_ happier."  
Georgiana sat quietly for a moment.  
"It is weird, you know? To think about her not here and not trying to control my every movement. I'm not sure how to live my life normally now. I was too young when she started abusing Will's hospitality and I think I never noticed the moment she crossed the border between a nattering older relative and... a tyrant. And I never managed to do normal grown-up stuff, like date someone for more than few weeks."  
Elizabeth's eyes widened as she turned back to the pianoforte.  
"You don't date?"  
Georgiana's fingers caressed the keyboard.  
"After that disaster..." she made an uncertain gesture. "I was never again quite sure I knew what I was doing. And she was always here, reminding me of the great responsibility to the family and the tradition, which of course has nothing to do with what _I_ prefer. It was easier not to get involved with people than to bring anyone here... and ever since George, I don't accept invitations to other people's places if I'm not sure there is a big, diverse group going."  
"Oh, darling."  
She dragged her fingers across the black keys.  
"It's hard" she admitted finally. "It's hard, but it's even harder to think about doing something else. I can't imagine myself on an actual date, like outside, in a café, or... or anything like this. I freeze when people compliment me. Every time someone says something nice about me, I imagine _him_ smiling at me."  
Elizabeth sat closer and pulled her into a loose embrace.  
"I see" she rocked both of them slowly. "And... have you tried therapy? Talking to someone, straightening this out?"  
The younger woman shrugged.  
"Twice. What they said... it didn't really work for me. I can't get rid of _him_."  
"You know he's in prison, right?"  
"Yes."  
"And you know what for?"  
Georgiana pulled slightly away.  
"Not really."  
"There were financial issues that brought him to the attention of the police" Elizabeth explained slowly. "Tax evasion and embezzlement. But once he was arrested and his flat was searched, they found... other stuff."  
The silence in the room was oppressive.  
"What other stuff?"  
"My niece is barely a month younger than Mina and Rose, but my sister is more than four years my junior" Elizabeth explained carefully. "I was almost twenty-one when they were born - admittedly, young for a mother - but she was just sixteen."  
Georgiana's eyes snapped open.  
"She wasn't sixteen when they..."  
"Nope. And of course the doctors in the hospital noticed, and they reported it to Child Services. My parents were desperate but they knew nothing, so the case went cold because Lydia refused to tell. And I wasn't there, because I was still recovering..."  
"And then you only went home after a year."  
"Yep. And anyway I didn't know who it was that Lydia was covering for. But one day she slipped and told me something about cute guys from Derbyshire - she wanted to annoy me by comparing her sweet George to W- _William_. She said he had never thrown her out when she needed him, and that he had loved her despite it being illegal, crap like this. I sat there, listening to her telling me how he picked her up from school, how she loved his dark looks and she kind of compared herself to me in that way. She even said I would have liked him, had I met him because he was so much easier to like than my stuffy ex."  
Georgiana shivered.  
"And...?"  
"And I went to the police" Elizabeth looked away. "I asked what I can do if I know the name of the man who did this to my sister. They asked for details and it turned out they were looking for Lydia because they found her photos on his computer."  
The younger woman frowned.  
"And why would that be a problem...?"  
" _Photos_ , Georgie. _Like, naked_."  
"Oh."  
"Lydia posed for him, still underage. Also, pregnant. Also, with him, in the deed. The police guessed from some details that she might be underage, so they were trying to find her, but there was not enough of her face visible to help them. I could identify her, however, and coupled with Adele's birth date..."  
"How long did he get?"  
Elizabeth snorted.  
"Way too little. But he won't walk out of there anytime soon. Once they added up the offences, and the stuff he..."  
"That's good" Georgiana finally relaxed. "It's good to hear that."  
"Lydia hates me, officially."  
"She isn't exactly the best judge of character then."  
"She says it's my fault and - and Will's. Because Wickham always blamed William for that inheritance thing, and now she blames me for the sentence. Even though they would have put him behind bars without my help, they just couldn't get the sex predator part added without exact proof that the victim was too young."  
"Ah. And what you told them..."  
"Oh, yes. They were more than happy to not call Lydia as a witness, considering they had material proof of her involvement. And yes, even if she was willing at the time, formally her consent doesn't count. They just didn't want to have her histrionics added to the case."  
"I'm glad it worked" Georgiana whispered harshly. "I'm sorry about Lydia, but I'm glad it worked like this with Wickham. He deserved nothing more."  
"I'd say a flogging on a public square could have done him wonders, too."  
They managed to laugh despite the tears, and Georgiana sat a bit straighter.  
"I think there is one person you could contact" Elizabeth dug up her phone. "Mary. She works with abused kids, part-time, as a volunteer. They have therapists at the centre, who could either take your case or refer you to someone who deals with adults but is compassionate rather than well-paid."  
Georgiana looked at the number for a moment but finally copied it to her own phone.  
"I'll think about it, OK?"  
  
####  
  
The house was silent. It was three in the morning, after all, so he didn't expect much traffic on the corridors, but still, it seemed unnatural. The corridors were sparsely lit, and the small nooks and crannies of the windows seemed to hide some weird secret shadowed worlds.  
The library wasn't that empty, however, and his heart melted - he would have never admitted it, but there was something about Elizabeth's love of reading that made his knees turn into butter. If one added to it the fact that she was in her sleeping t-shirt - coming down to mid-thigh and displaying an astounding amount of cleavage - one would come up with an interesting outcome.  
He shot a glance down his body, trying to make the _outcome_ go away, but to no avail.  
_Mother of your children, yes. Definitely_ ** _ **not**_** _interested, thank you. Stop it._  
She looked uncomfortable in that armchair - and having fallen asleep in it more than once he could attest to the fact that the neck of whoever slept in it suffered from the experience. He took a moment to have a proper, good look at her, however, and it was almost more than he could stand. He wanted to kiss away the frown that still marred her face, even in sleep, to wrap her in his arms, pull her closer...  
_She hadn't changed a bit. I bet she still has a collection of popculture t-shirts somewhere in her wardrobe. And that abysmal Jurassic Park hoodie._  
She moved, body trying to find a better position.  
"Lizzy" he crouched next to her. "Elizabeth..."  
"Khm?" she barely opened her eyes.  
"You should go to bed, Lizzy. This chair is not very comfortable."  
She blinked and stretched, shivering a bit.  
"Cold" she mumbled, rubbing her face.  
"Come on. Rose's room is warm and there is an actual bed waiting for you."  
Her face plainly revealed her distaste with the idea of moving anywhere.  
"I've got a blanket here" he suggested cautiously. "You can wrap..."  
She sat up straighter and looked at him with eyes more and more awake.  
"Oh. Sure, thank you. What time is it now?"  
He yawned discreetly.  
"Quarter past three."  
She shook all over.  
"I will have to work tomorrow" she said softly. "Can I set it up somewhere here?"  
"Absolutely. We managed to get WIFI to stretch also down here, and nobody would bother you here. Or you can take the room next to Rose's, there is a desk and a chair at least."  
She nodded, still shivering and blinking.  
"You can work from home a lot then?" he asked, fetching the blanket from the sofa and pulling it over her shoulders.  
"I almost never go to the office I'm working with" she shrugged the warm wool closer to herself. "Most companies are rather happy not to know which gender had coded their software, but when a woman engineer shows up on site and tries to present the outcome or discuss the plans" she sniffed "some can't just stand it. I had a few cases of arguments over whatever I delivered, including one senior analyst declining to accept a working product. Because apparently code is better when whoever sits at the keyboard also pisses standing up."  
They froze for a moment and Elizabeth blushed hotly.  
"Oh, God. Will. I'm sorry. I'm just..." she rubbed her face. "When I'm sleepy, my inhibitions go out of the window. Blergh."  
He smothered a nervous chuckle.  
"No worries. But I see that the market is just as full of misogynistic pricks as it used to be when you were at the university. That's... unfortunate."  
"To say the least. Actually, uni seemed rather open-minded in comparison to some software companies. And smaller, non-IT companies that just outsource building of pieces of software to freelancers and coding hubs are even worse. If the programmer isn't a scruffy, pizza-scarfing, soda-chugging balding male, they won't trust in the quality of the final product."  
"So, why not look for work in one of the bigger corporations? HP, SAP, there has to be a place that you'd like."  
"And they expect on-site work mostly" she wrapped the blanket tighter around herself. "I needed to work from home."  
_Ah. Mina._  
"Well" he reached to help her up. "If it works for you, then it works. But maybe you could try now that Mina is more independent? I mean, with her growing up..."  
Elizabeth combed her hair back and shook her head.  
"Too used to working in my own hours. Unless the money was significantly better, I'd rather code during the night and go to the park with Mina than get stuck behind a desk eight hours a day plus commute" she yawned again and blinked sleepily.  
"When do you need to be up?" he asked as she stood up and gathered the folds of the blanket around her.  
"Nine-ish will be fine" she said, not really looking up. "Thank you, Will."  
  
#  
  
He sighed when the door closed behind her.  
_What can I do to make you believe in us again?_  
  
#  
  
She leaned on the wall of the darkened corridor and shivered despite the heavy wool.  
_I hope you won't shut us out once this is all straightened out._  
  
####

 

This time it was Elizabeth who woke up William, after he had made a valiant attempt at staying up with Mina for the night. At six in the morning, illuminated by the grey light, he looked quite done for and didn't resist the cup of tea pressed into his hand or being pushed out of the door with a firm shove. Fortunately Mina was getting better already, so she was quite able to sit in her bed reading, if a bit sullen due to being stuck away from everything that was happening in the house. But she was definitely not feverish anymore so, after spending the early morning in Elizabeth's company, she seemed more than happy to send her mother down for breakfast.  
  
#  
  
"I called Sergeant Hanners on Saturday, to consult on our current situation" William informed them enigmatically as he poured tea and handed a cup to Elizabeth. She raised her eyebrows in question. "Ah, sorry. That's the police officer who had helped Mina on Friday. She seemed wary of Anne, from the description of what had happened, and offered her help if we needed it to remove Anne from the situation. Well, we've dealt quite well with _that_ , but I asked her if they could help us with the problem of the lost letters. She said we need to have the documentation saying exactly what was sent and when, and who signed for it and how it came to be lost. I've informed my company lawyer, too, so she can start digging for the right laws, but she said more or less the same thing. So, I suppose we'll need any proof of posting that you may have, Lizzy" he grimaced. "Because ours apparently had never left the house at all. At least yours would have gone through the postal system before getting..."  
She nodded silently and sipped her tea, relishing the warmth and the slight _something_ in the taste of the milk that said "high fat content".  
"I have them all in my desk at home. At least the ones from the last two years, but that should be enough, shouldn't it?"  
"That would be a good start, definitely. Now, good Sergeant explained that until we have exact timeline for the packages, we don't really know which kind of offence that is - theft of property or interfering with the mail. For the time being we must gather the evidence and know who handled the letters and when."  
"The normal letters I just sent, well, normally. The packages were the tracked ones. But the last four were packages, so I just need some time to dig through my desk to identify the right receipts."  
"I will visit the station today and tell her what we have" William frowned. "I have to go to the office for two or three hours, but I should be back by noon, depending on what the Sergeant wants from me. I will ask them to create a file for Anne and Catherine, or whatever it is that they can do on the station, and take my statement regarding Friday and what aunt Catherine had said. This should be at least enough to ensure they can't try anything in the Family Court. Actually, Sergeant Hanners said she had already started something up on _Friday_ for us, after we left the station, because she had a _feeling_."  
Elizabeth looked up at him.  
"Family Court?" she managed not to stutter. "Why would they...?"  
William bit his lip and put away his cup, clasping his hands tightly in front of him on the table.  
"There is nothing they can actually _do_ " he said slowly and evenly. "But they can make life harder for us."  
"William, what are you talking about?"  
She felt just a little bit faint as he looked away from all of them.  
"Aunt Catherine threatened Rose. And Mina. Well, mostly it was a threat against the two of us. Current district judge of the Family Court is Maura de Bourgh. She would be more than happy to make our lives harder if she was given any opening. It was Catherine's last resort - she tried blackmailing me into letting them stay here by promising to bring our 'situation' to the attention of the court unless I gave in. She was quite ready to use everything she knew, up to and including the fact that the girls managed to switch places without us noticing."  
"But why would that woman do anything so stupid? What would be the aim?"  
"She's yet another de Bourgh cousin unhappy with the way the ancestral home had been managed" he said sourly. "And the aim would have been to put pressure on me through the girls. Imagine us being tied in court for months, with Mina and Rose forced to describe their lives, to explain themselves and their switch and with all the possible worst people being asked to be character witnesses for us. Even if nothing else came out of it, we'd have spent months defending ourselves just to maintain the status quo. The girls would miss school and we'd both be affected professionally, in short and long term. And who knows what would have happened to the girls' education finally. She said something about going to your employers to let them know you're not a dependable person."  
She could easily imagine going back again and again, explaining to the judge's satisfaction why she had left Rose and why, and why, and why.  
"What can we do to stop them?" she heard her own voice sounding rather alien.  
"Exactly what I'm doing today. Asking for an investigation to be started in regards to the stolen packages that were supposed to be sent from us to you, as they were definitely stolen before they ever left the house, that much we've ascertained. And I'll ask them to make a note of the posting proofs for your packages that will be provided later - and once we have the tracking information, they can ask the post office for details. Although said details will mostly entail Brian picking them up, like everything else for the house, which he does twice a week."  
"How is that helping in any way?" Georgiana voiced what Elizabeth couldn't really bring herself to ask. "What difference does it make?"  
"More or less that if she is accused of a felony - or even misdemeanour - she will find it harder to make all needed judges follow her lead. And that the de Bourghs will not be so keen on associating with her."  
"I will look for the receipts when we go back home" Elizabeth promised "anything to get _her_ off our backs."  
_Home. Hah._  
The flat seemed less and less like _home_ in her mind.  
_Maybe it never actually had been one._  
  
#  
  
At nine, headphones on her ears, she sat in the library, the air around her suffused with the smell of old paper and leather. The people on the other end of the line were surprisingly nice - especially for a nine o'clock morning call on Monday - and refreshingly competent. They provided a list of issues they had identified in the previous days and explained each in detail as she went through it with them.  
With the clear and specific set of problems to tackle, she spent the day staring intently at the screen, making small corrections to the code and running it again and again, trying to get the algorithm to work more effectively. Time was the most important factor in the solutions like this, so she had to make the procedures as economical as possible.  
Taking a break every hour she checked on Mina and Rose - one had managed to fall asleep due to sheer boredom and the other was going through the French lessons she had missed in the time she had spent in London. Just before dinner Elizabeth had found Rose strolling in from the outside, dressed in what her older daughter explained was "the stable" outfit.  
"I had to check on Star" she said, combing back sweaty hair. "She's fine, but getting a bit restless. No idea how Mina managed to get away with having the stablehands ride her all that time, but I suppose with aunt Anne and aunt Catherine and everything Dad must have missed it. I'll have to start practising with her, like, tomorrow. She can't be just left to run as she wants..." she paused, looking at Elizabeth in question. "Mom? Everything alright?"  
She could only nod, her throat too tight to say anything.  
_Rose is home. And we will be going home, soon. As soon as Mina's better. I'd actually rather we didn't. Who knows what the school will cook up in the meanwhile..._  
  
#  
  
In the evening Mina was already so bored that she was on the verge of whining and the only thing that managed to keep her abed was a promise that if she could get through the night without another bout of fever (or without trying to sneak around the house to meet Rose, who was being kept in a reasonable isolation from her), Netflix limitations on her tablet would undergo an adjustment and they would be able to pick a movie each with Rose to watch over the next days.  
She sulked a bit, but sat down with yet another book from Rose's shelf that she planned to catch up on and told Elizabeth that she was quite happy now, thank you, Mom.  
Elizabeth took it as the dismissal it was and promptly removed herself to the library.  
  
#  
  
"How is she?"  
William was sitting in one of the chairs, an old glass teapot and two mugs on a battered tray on a table by his elbow. He was holding a folded newspaper and a pencil so either he was marking something in an article or - she managed to take a peek - yes, a crossword puzzle. The moment she looked, he covered it, tilting the paper away from her. She frowned and he snorted with laughter at her surprised expression.  
"Sorry, Lizzy. Rose and Georgiana steal my crossword all the time and fill in all the popculture references, saying that I'm too old to know that stuff. I got into habit of hiding that part of the paper from them and--" he shrugged. "It's become a reflex now."  
"No worries. Your crossword is safe from me, I promise" she lowered herself into the chair on the other side of that table.  
"But I could share my tea, if you wanted some" he said with a slight something in his tone.  
_A question? Suggestion? Hope?_  
"That would be nice" she said, not really up to looking straight at him right now.  
_Get a hold of yourself, Elizabeth. You're a bloody grownup. You can talk in a civilised way to your ex, can't you? Like, without breaking into tears._  
A slightly scuffed mug was placed in her hands and Will's fingers lingered just a moment longer than was needed to ensure she had grabbed it correctly.  
"So, how is she? I'm afraid we have next to no experience... I felt a bit useless on Friday, actually."  
"This is one area in which the fact that you have no experience means you're doing something right" she said, sipping the hot tea. "That only means you took good care of Rose."  
_Better than I did with Mina. Moving to London was the pinnacle of my stupid decisions._  
"Well, she did catch a cold when she was in preschool, but it was a week when _I_ had actually been stuck in bed due to a twisted knee."  
She braved a glance his way, but he was looking at the wall above the working table.  
"Poor Mrs Reynolds" he said with a small grimace. "She had a snotty toddler to deal with and I was absolutely no help, in a cast for two weeks. That was one of the reasons Rose got sick in the first place, as I was supposed to pick her up, so she kept escaping from the building to see if I was coming, and she managed to hide from the teacher that she had soaked her socks."  
"And you were...?"  
"Being taken to the hospital by guys from the site I was visiting, and none of them listened when I asked them to call Georgiana. Finally the nurses at the A &E did it, but by that time Rose had escaped already three times and it took Georgie additional half hour to get there. Add twenty minutes for her to convince the teachers that she was authorised to pick Rose - and don't ask me why, but they were convinced she was trying to kidnap the kid even though she had been added to the list. And then back home, where Georgiana found out Rose had already caught a chill due to her nearly frozen feet. All the while they had no idea what was wrong with _me_ , because I was half out of my head on morphine" he grimaced and she nodded slowly. "So when I finally came home, the doctor had been and was already gone, Rose was full of medicines and asleep. I was stuck downstairs - sleeping on that cot that I had pulled out for you, actually - to avoid the stairs, and she was in her room upstairs, because it was warmer there" he rubbed his knee with a grimace.  
"How did you manage to twist your _knee_?" she couldn't hide the disquiet in her voice. "Even thinking about it hurts."  
He snorted.  
"Like an idiot. I fell into a ditch. It was raining and I was out there, checking on a new team they'd hired to replant the trees along the property line. Someone didn't shore up the hole properly and the side I was standing on just... slid. Unluckily for me, I was standing with one of my feet on a plank, and that held, but the other leg just went out from under me."  
"William!"  
He grinned at her, all teeth and wide smirk.  
"I ended up with one of my shoes lost in the water - they fished it out later, completely ruined - forcibly making a near-perfect split, my backside in three inches of squelching muck and the 'upper' leg twisted at the knee. It took two guys to get me up from there, because I threatened to bite if someone tried to touch the twisted leg in the attempt to pull me up. I felt like a proper city idiot on his first day in the country."  
He looked ten - no, more like twenty - years younger as he told the tale. She could not remember a time when he would tell a story with such levity and self-deprecation. At twenty-eight he had been already too laden with duties and needs of others to just relax in that way.  
_This is the William that Charles met._  
"I hadn't been that dirty since my last rugby game, I suppose" he added, a bit absently, confirming her impression almost immediately. "But the rugby uniforms were designed for that kind of rough treatment. My suit trousers were... not."  
Her eyes widened in surprise.  
"Yes" he nodded, semi-seriously. "There was no saving _that_ pair."  
She wasn't sure whether it was the best to laugh as she did, but she really couldn't stop herself.  
"So, that's why I have no idea how to dose a toddler with ibuprofen using one of these fiddly plastic syringes" he explained, picking up his mug again. "She was healthy earlier than I was even allowed to do more than hobble to the bathroom and back."  
"Some people will go to great lengths to avoid making an honest effort" she mumbled with a smirk, then froze, looking at him in apprehension.  
"Well, I didn't go as far as some space heroes. I draw a line at losing limbs."  
She frowned as he cocked an eyebrow at her.  
"You didn't toss them" she said finally.  
"Did you think I would?"  
"Well, I didn't expect you to _read_ them!"  
"Why? It turns out I like a good space battle quite well."  
"The space battles _suck_."  
"Ah, no. But the political and social fiddling are the weak points, definitely."  
"The social side is the best part of these books!"  
"Give me a good torpedo attack and it's always better than the political maneuvering..."  
"A good torpedo attack? One that contains an exact list of victims, including the count of crew who got surprised when visiting the head?"  
"It's still better than..."  
She couldn't stop the nervous giggle.  
"Are we really doing this?" she asked finally. "Arguing about Honor Harrington?"  
He half-smiled and nodded just a bit.  
"Why not? It's not like I have anyone else to argue about that with. Georgiana despises space opera and I'm most certainly not letting Rose read _that_ yet."  
"I certainly hope so! Mina will have to wait a few years, too. And, hopefully, she will have better taste in books than I have, anyway."  
"I suppose you've been feeding her the classics?"  
"Mostly. But there is a lot of valuable modern literature available for a discerning parent" she sat up, smiling primly.  
"And what would that be, Miss Bennet?" he leaned forward, looking at her intently.  
"Well, Mr Darcy, that would be, for example, 'Good Night Stories For Rebel Girls'."  
She waited for a heartbeat.  
"Rose got hers from the kickstarter" he challenged.  
"As did Mina. And we've supported the second one."  
"Same here. Of course."  
She watched as he drained his cup, sending her a small smile over the rim.  
"Will?"  
He looked up at her and she couldn't stop herself from looking away.  
"You did good job with Rose" she said finally, her throat constricting.  
She found her hand engulfed in his warm fingers.  
"So did you with Mina" he said softly. "Don't let anyone tell you otherwise."  
  
#  
Tuesday morning came early for William. He had spent whole Monday torn between the office, the police station - Sergeant Hanners had been most helpful - and the family, trying to cram as much as he could do in the limited amount of time available.  
After sharing the moment in the library with Elizabeth, he retired to his room, checking on Mina on the way. He found her neither too cold not too warm, the thermometer providing an electronic proof to his guess. Still, he couldn't find a place for himself in his own room - neither the bed, nor the chair by the lamp really appealed to him.  
Sitting on the floor by the bookcase and flipping through some old notes he noticed the grey light of dawn slowly crawling across the floor and suddenly it was a little past six in the morning and he hadn't had a wink of sleep all night. Counting the time he had before he was needed in the office it didn't make sense now for him to try even to nap, so he stepped into the shower and let the warm water do its magic. It wasn't sleep but it still helped.  
Slightly refreshed and still feeling vaguely Monday-ish he nipped into the library to pick up the newspaper he had left there.  
Elizabeth was sitting, cross-legged, in his chair, wrapped in two blankets, staring at the wall.  
"Lizzy, did you sit here all night?" he asked apprehensively. "Elizabeth?"  
She looked up.  
"No, I checked on Mina twice" she said somewhat flatly. "And I walked down to the kitchen when I ran out of tea. And then I tried reading, but..." she shook her head. He slowly sank down onto the carpet next to her, looking up into her eyes. "She really did burn them, didn't she?" Elizabeth's voice sounded hollow.  
"She did" he confirmed, dropping his gaze to her bare feet.  
"I'm not sure I can believe it. I mean I know she told you she did it, and she probably wasn't lying either, but how could anyone do such a thing?"  
He leaned a bit forward and leaned his head on the arm-rest of the chair.  
"I don't understand either" he sighed. "She said she was protecting me, which is obviously rubbish. She was afraid of you, I suppose. You were threatening her investment, her long-term security package."  
A darker spot appeared on the fabric of her chocolate-coloured soft trousers. And another. And another.  
Drip, drip. Elizabeth rarely cried.  
"I'm sorry" he didn't dare raise his head and look at her right now. "I should have got rid of her sooner. I just... got stuck in that idiotic situation, with that blasted contract over my head..."  
A hand on his shoulder made him stop.  
"Don't" she said simply. "Don't blame yourself. You did all you could to secure Rose's safety, and Mina's, and mine, in a way. If it went to the court and they started to dig for details - what we did, how we lived, how... They could have taken both of them away."  
"Or at least made our lives pure hell" he nodded. "But I'm still responsible for not overseeing this in more detail. Brian has been moping around apologising for not paying more attention, too, but I should have been talking to him..."  
"But you've been working with him since you've inherited the estate" he felt a finger trace his cheekbone. "You trusted him and he trusted you, you didn't _have_ to tell him how to do his job. Micromanagement is the worst form of management."  
"He feels he should have asked what was in the packages, but he never did that for any of the others, so why would he have started only for these specific ones? And I never left any special instructions for ours... I should have, I don't know... Checked the tracking number. But it felt like spying. Or stalking. I'm so, so sorry, Lizzy. She... she actually took everything you made for Rose and destroyed it and I don't even know how to..."  
"Shh" she pressed her fingers over his lips. "It doesn't matter, Will. They were just stupid things, they don't matter. She destroyed the _letters_. The letters were important. I can sew another pillow, or a new quilt, just for Rose. But we can't undo all that time we've lost because of her."  
"And of our inability to be a bit more flexible" he mumbled against her palm.  
"That, too" she moved her hand to gently caress his forehead. "But we... we tried, didn't we? I wrote my heart out. I asked... every Christmas Eve, I was there, on the station. I wrote in that last letter, when I decided to just send the gifts from then on -- whatever you'd be doing with them -- that if you ever think it is worth it, I'll be waiting for you on St Pancras."  
"Liz..."  
"And I waited. Every year. I found something to do, or buy, or... just anything. And I waited."  
"But I never came."  
He felt her shrug.  
"I was waiting at Matlock" he couldn't raise his head and look at her. "Every Christmas Eve and every tenth of October. I wrote and wrote... I asked. Many things. It was stupid."  
"It was _human_ , Will. Stupid, that's the whole description of the human condition."  
"If we were smarter..."  
"Oh, of course. I could have swallowed my pride and asked Charles to pass a message along. Or something. But when I thought about the... the humiliation. I was strong, you know. The independent, resilient and self-sufficient Elizabeth. I had to prove I needed no support and only suffered my parents interference for Mina's good. Asking Jane or Charlie meant being _weak_. I persevered, no matter the cost."  
He snorted.  
"Please do stop reading my thoughts" he leaned into her palm. "The most I managed was to ask Charles how you were doing, and that wasn't that often either. I felt like... if you weren't answering, then what would have happened if I just showed up? Or even called?"  
Her fingers curled slightly around his cheek.  
"I thought about coming here, once or twice" she said softly. "But I was too proud to just... come back, with my tail between my legs. Like a teenager who had run away from home. Or a truant kid. I'm so sorry, William. I was too proud and too afraid to just... come back and ask for forgiveness."  
He sat up, bringing her hand up with him, trying to catch her eyes with his gaze.  
"Elizabeth, what were you afraid of?"  
She looked aside.  
"That you would laugh at me" she. "With every letter you... every letter that went unanswered I imagined you..."  
"So this is your opinion of me?" he asked finally into the oppressive silence, staring up the long line of her neck. "That I would have _laughed_ at you? Elizabeth..."  
"How was I supposed to know?!" she finally turned to face him, even if her gaze kept slipping to the side. "I didn't... I didn't know what to do. What was I supposed... How could I know? William, I _didn't know_."  
"Elizabeth" he enunciated carefully. "I would have never laughed at you. And I am very sorry I've ever given you an impression that I could."  
"I know that _now_ " she touched the small sliver of grey hair at his temple. "She had taken this away from us. She stole so much more than just my silly quilts and useless blankets. If she had just let one letter through - one way or the other - it would have been all done, long time ago. One letter. "  
He licked his lips, looking away for a moment.  
"What would you think about--"  
A phone rang shrilly two steps from them, playing the most obnoxious version of Reveille that he had managed ever to find. Elizabeth winced, jolted out of their tiny, brittle bubble, pulling away her hand, drawing the blankets tighter around herself. He swore inwardly and snatched the phone from where it slipped out of his pocket.  
_JONATHAN_  
_Shite._  
"I'm sorry, Liz, I have to take this. It's the emergency phone. At this hour it's probably major..."  
She nodded jerkily, not looking at him.  
_Shite_.  
  
#  
  
He watched as she sat there, nearly immobile, blinking much too slowly and running her hands through her hair, pulling at it absently.  
_Shite._  
Also, there was a major SNAFU at one of the locations, which included the neighbour suddenly claiming part of the area that had been already marked by the surveyors from the county office as belonging to the property under development and several people coming to blows due to apparent lack of proper oversight. Jonathan was at his wits end, and he wasn't even responsible for any of the teams on site, but only there to check the markings for the building foundations. Apparently at least three different parties involved demanded William's immediate attention to the problem.  
"Liz?" he crouched next to the chair, making sure to place himself slightly lower than she was. "I need to go and fix this mess, before someone gets sent to a hospital. It seems... Well, doesn't matter. I should be back in two hours, unless it's something major. We have to talk, and soon. But we need proper time and place for this and I don't want us to be pressed to... whatever."  
She nodded, eyes half-closed and face drawn.  
"Come on, Liz. You need to take care of yourself, just a bit. You won't get any proper sleep in this chair. Even that cot in Mina's room is better. And Mrs R promised that she'll have Brian's boys clean two more rooms today before dinner, so you'll have a normal bed to sleep in."  
It took her a moment to respond.  
"Have someone drive you" she said slowly. "You haven't slept all night, either. You shouldn't be driving."  
"I will ask Brian to drive me. But only once I see you up in Mina's room. Come on, up you go."  
  
####  
  
She slept for two hours or so before some random sound awoke her. It was only nine in the morning and she had been up for a twenty five hours stretch the day before. She felt small shivers running through her body, an obvious nervous reaction to both lack of sleep and psychic exhaustion. The little meeting with William in the library didn't really help either.  
They were on the verge of maybe saying something. Maybe pushing through some boundary. She couldn't say. And now she'd never know, because someone's house needed saving and William had to go and save it.  
She breathed slowly. In through the nose. Out through the mouth. Again. Again. Repeat.  
The sweet, homey scent surrounding her soothed her, just a bit.  
Repeat.  
William was a responsible professional who had several dozens of people in his employ and was obviously concerned for their wellbeing. From the half-conversation she had heard it looked like a conflict over the property boundaries. Didn't sound very exciting, but if the construction was delayed it might mean autumn weather affecting it.  
William had to make sure the building progressed and, apparently, he was the only one who knew everyone involved...  
She sniffed, just a bit.  
_You need to take care of yourself._  
Breathe. Repeat.  
_You don't have to do it all._  
Sleep.  
Sl...  
  
####  
  
He was absolutely exhausted. Between the property dispute - if he could call it that, because a better term would have been FUBAR (as a compliment to his early morning impression of the situation), which Jonathan expressed several times over the duration of the day - the land registry, the owner's current house and two separate police stations he had barely had time to eat or even drink water, so by dinnertime he was running on fumes and felt rather wrung out. The only thing he did manage was a text to Rose - or Mina, he had no idea if they had switched the phones back - asking the girls to inform Elizabeth, Georgiana and Mrs R that he would be late and that he had no idea how late.  
He really hoped Elizabeth would sleep through the day, not only because that would make his being back late less obvious, but it would also give him time to deal with the rather nasty bruise that he had received from an overly eager guard on the neighbouring property when he tried to explain the problem to the owner.  
_Everyone_ seemed to be rather belligerent.  
Of course, asking Elizabeth for help would have appealed to her protective tendencies, but he didn't want her to feel responsible for dealing with him in his current state, so they stopped on their way home in a pharmacy and bought appropriate supplies for Jonathan to patch him up on the spot.  
"Davey is waiting for us in my office" he added as he pressed the last piece of plaster to William's jaw. "He has some news from the heating company, but his phone had apparently been gnawed on by his kid, so..."  
William shrugged. At this point all he wanted was to be driven home (Brian had left to pick up deliveries and do groceries for Mrs R), a cup of tea and, just possibly, five minutes alone with Elizabeth. Maybe ten.  
Davey joined them in the car and stretched in the backseat, handing them both paper cups of coffee. William sniffed at his and deemed it less than military grade offensive.  
"The software will be all corrected by the weekend" the younger man opened his notes and started relaying the message from the vendor. "But that's what they promised, I wouldn't be so sure."  
"They delivered the last time, even faster than we expected" William sipped the coffee and grimaced. He needed _food_. And Elizabeth. And Mina and Rose. On a second thought, he could actually skip the food part.  
"Yeah, but that would have been, like, a fluke" Davey made a derisive sound. "I got them to spill who is working on _our_ pieces and now I kind of feel they are cheating us a bit."  
"What? Are they hiring some first-year student to do this?"  
"No, but it's not much better. It's some woman freelancer. No idea how they can rely on this kind of service. I'm a bit worried we may be having problems with them later on."  
It was quiet in the car for a moment, as William tried to process...  
_Wait a minute._  
"Did you just complain that our vendor is having a female fix our code?"  
Davey snorted.  
"Sure have. I mean, well, if it was a nice interface on some application, I'd believe they need girls to do this. But coding hard stuff like heat system management? I can't believe they'll deliver anything worthwhile if they hire women."  
William rubbed his face slowly.  
There were two options.  
Either he had been spectacularly deaf to the idiocy of such opinions and only Liz's description of her professional woes woke him up or Davey had never uttered such idiocy before.  
He hoped for the latter - both for his and Davey's sake - but he was afraid it might have been the former.  
"Davey, can you tell me how the detail of someone's anatomy influences their ability to program computers?"  
The younger man frowned.  
"What do you mean, William?"  
"I mean - how does having or not having a penis make someone better or worse at programming? I am an abysmal computer _user_ , for example, not to mention programming. And I certainly do piss standing up. How is your C++? Python? Ruby? I know the names, and that's it."  
"Never touched it" Davey waved his hands. "Not the point. Point is, they have hired a woman and we should get some kind of better offer for that software now. If we even buy it."  
"Does it do what we asked them to deliver?"  
Jonathan grunted a confirmation.  
"Were they late with any part of it?"  
"No" the architect took a corner.  
"Do we have a reason to predict they will be late with the newest batch of corrections?"  
"They did hire a woman, so, well, sure."  
William sighed. No place like here, no time like now.  
"Davey, do me a favour, please. Do keep these ideas for yourself. Wait until the deadline they had promised and then we'll check how it is all working. If it's correct in the tolerance I've specified, we pay and we pay in full. If it's incorrect, we send it back. But, still, I will _not_ be negotiating any rebate or price cut on it."  
"Wanted to save you some money" Davey shrugged. "I still feel like they are cheating us."  
"At the moment we have no reason to say the quality will be affected in any way by the gender of person touching the code. And, personally, considering the way women are treated in that business, I'd sooner trust code written by one of them than one of the 'good old boys' whose only passport to the land of engineering is their downstairs equipment" he closed his eyes and leaned back. "And if I hear that you tried to pressure them in any way over this topic, I will kindly ask you to remove yourself from this project" he said evenly. "I wouldn't like my house to be a reason for perpetuating idiocy like this."  
"Have it you way" Davey mumbled. "If you want to pay more, your business."  
"Mine, yes. And I apply equal pay rules in my own company, so why would I deal with others differently?"  
"Davey, do consider shutting up" Jonathan said dryly. "You're not impressing anyone and if William decides to take you off the project, you won't get any support from me. And you won't have a chance to touch that fancy system, no matter who wrote it."  
  
#  
  
By the time they drove to Pemberley the sun had set and the old house seemed rather dark and forlorn. The light over the front door was the only sign of life and he was thankful for it, as he stumbled up to the door. His head full of both the events of the day and the discussion of the last twenty minutes, he dropped his jacket and case on a chair in the main hall and went in search of life.  
There were murmurs of voices coming from Mina's room - or Rose's, depending how he looked at it. He tried not to focus overly on the fact that in a few short days one of them would be gone and he'd maybe see her in weeks, if not months.  
_Weekends. I could take Rose to London for the very next weekend, because why not. I could find rooms to let, right now. Preferably near Lizzy's flat. Or, even better, convince Lizzy to move and ensure a room for Rose in the new flat. Then I could stay in a hotel and girls would have a sleepover. And if I manage it correctly, Lizzy won't have to be indebted to her parents anymore..._  
_...ah, she would be, but to me. No. She won't take it._  
He climbed the stairs and pushed the door to Mina and Rose's room open.  
Mina was on the bed, Rose on the cot and Mina's tablet was carefully set up on the chair between them, playing what looked suspiciously like "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom".  
"Ah, ladies?" he knocked on the door. "Where is your mother?"  
"Mom said she would be working. More fixes she has to fit in this stupid system before the weekend. But she was, like, half-asleep."  
"She was sitting here with her laptop" Mina added "but I don't have fever anymore, so I told her I'm OK to just watch something, and she went to the library, I suppose."  
"And I'm staying on the cot, so I don't catch anything" Rose interjected. "So, you know. We're fine."  
"And watching Indiana Jones before sleeping? Are you two _sure_?"  
Rose shrugged.  
"Dad, it's not like I haven't seen that before."  
"Yep" Mina nodded. "Nothing new here."  
"You two..." he shook his head. "Fine, fine. Today, fine. Tomorrow, both of you, schoolwork. And I mean it. Don't you dare treat this as some kind of vacation. We still have to work out how to clear your school situation after this mess, but it will be much easier for all of us if you both have impeccable records from now on. Rose, I suppose you didn't bring Mina's school bag with you...?"  
His eldest rolled her eyes.  
"But I remember the subjects of at least three assignments, so Mina can write them now and then just copy them to her notebooks."  
"Very well. Tomorrow morning, start on this. Both of you. I will check."  
"Yes, Dad."  
"Sure."  
They both sounded more interested in their movie than in discussing schoolwork with him.  
_Duh. Also, you're old, William. And you talk about_ ** _ **school**_** _when they are trying to watch Harrison Ford kick butt._  
"Goodnight, ladies."  
"Night, Dad."  
  
#  
  
Elizabeth was, in fact, in the library. Lights off, the only source of illumination was the screen of her laptop. Elizabeth was sitting in front of it, pouting.  
"What had that bad, bad computer done to you?"  
She shot him a glance.  
"It's not cooperating" she grumbled. "Or I'm just too stupid to resolve this."  
"Talk to the yellow duck then."  
Her second glance was even more venomous.  
"I'm not supposed to talk about this, it's NDE and all that rot. I have to draw it, I suppose. Suddenly I'm hit with my second year maths and the problem of balancing resources. Blargh, hated that. When I have two things that can serve the same purpose, one is cheap and preferred, but limited and the other is expensive and unlimited, how do I predict usage of both... Also, how to I ensure storage of the first one big enough to ensure..."  
"Duck, here" he reminded her kindly, sitting at the table next to her.  
"OK, fine. Imagine... imagine you have a shop."  
"OK."  
"And you buy stuff that comes in boxes. Then you use the same boxes to send shopping to online customers."  
"Recycling."  
"Exactly. Now, your storage for the boxes is limited to, well. Twenty. Sometimes you get thirty boxes in the morning so you have to discard ten, because you can't store them."  
"Waste."  
"Indeed. Then you get thirty online customers during the day, so you use up the twenty boxes you stored and need to buy new ones, from the shop on the other side of the street."  
"So I have cheap and limited boxes from recycling and costly and unlimited ones from the shop."  
"Exactly. Now, how do you predict the days when more would be needed? If we predict, what can we do?"  
He sighed.  
"Predicting works only in long term" he said slowly. "I mean, historical data. You need repetitive data from the same time last year, or last promo action, or last holidays."  
"OK. And if I do predict we'd have more customers on that day, how can this help me?" she rubbed her face. "I can't think about any algorithm or... or anything..." her fingers tangled in her hair, she looked rather more like a crazy sorceress than a programmer.  
"There may be no solution, Liz" he leaned to see her face. She frowned and snorted.  
"There is always some solution. They want me to find it."  
"You said it yourself - even if I know I'll have thirty customers, what can I do with the extra ten boxes? I have to discard them, unless I have some second storage where I can put them away safely."  
She sighed.  
"Which is what I told them sometime around four. But they demanded a solution. I am supposed to do... something about it."  
"So you've already sent them that exact answer?"  
"Yep."  
"And what did they say?"  
She sighed.  
"I quote: You are the smart one, Ms Bennet. We have full confidence you'll figure it out."  
"Ouch" he winced.  
"Exactly, ouch. I mean, I could... think about it. But I've been at it for the whole afternoon and there is no way to solve it!"  
"But why would the secondary storage be a problem?"  
"Limited space, I suppose. Or maybe they had already sold the system to someone who wants to use it on existing setup."  
"Why can't they make the storage outside? It's not like the boxes will be used all in one big go - we will see the number in the primary storage going down."  
"But then we'll have to send someone each time we want to up the storage."  
"Not necessarily. Make the runs more efficient and make them fetch ten at once. This way there will be one trip..."  
"Yesss..." she hissed and licked her lips. "If we have statistics of usage from previous days, we can more or less predict how often customers order online, so if we put a warning when the count hits, for example, ten boxes, then by the time ones from secondary storage are fetched..."  
"We still have boxes in the primary storage."  
"We'd have to make a good model, still, because the primary storage may be upped during the day by boxes coming from newly unpacked deliveries..." she grimaced. "Now I need to call them and convince them that the problem of magical helpful prediction has to be converted into the problem of managing the secondary storage and retrieval from it."  
"They will be online at this hour?"  
She frowned at him.  
"What time _is_... Ah" she shivered all over. "I might have overdone this. Well, never mind. Tomorrow morning is good enough. I will be dreaming about logical trees all night, I suppose" she frowned, looking at him finally as he sat next to her and was highlighted by her screen. "William? What happened to you?"  
"Ah" he touched the dressed bruise gingerly. "One of the guards, neighbouring property. Tried to stop me from contacting his employer. Very directly confrontational."  
"That doesn't sound very well" she pulled him closer and switched on the table lamp. "Did you put anything on it to reduce swelling?"  
"No, just antibiotic cream, a dab, where the skin broke."  
Her pursed lips told a whole story.  
"Come on. Upstairs, I have my first aid kit in my bag. No, first, the kitchen. You'll need some ice. You should have applied an ice pack immediately, but..."  
  
#  
  
They spent the rest of the evening in the girls' room, watching the end of the movie with them. When Rose curled up on the cot, yawning, she was prodded mercilessly to go to the bathroom and at least brush her teeth. Soon, both their daughters were drifting away and Elizabeth had collected her night things and followed him down the corridor.  
"Mrs R said this room is prepared for you" he pushed the door open. "At least the bed will be better than the fold-out one, if nothing else."  
She nodded, looking away from him.  
"Thank you, William" she shivered a bit. "Goodnight."  
"Night, Liz" he reached out to her - almost. He stopped his treacherous hand from raising any further and watched her sneak into her newly prepared room and close the door.  
_Well, f..._  
_What was I expecting? It's not like she would relish the idea of spending more time with me._  
_Or, whatever else._  
  
####

Dear God, that was tedious.  
They were dancing around each other like two little weirdly magnetized balls - unable to be separated, but at the same time avoiding direct contact.  
William had to leave for the office and to file in the formal complaint against the man who had hit him. Elizabeth spent that time in the library, standing at the window, watching the main drive. Georgiana knew as much because she had managed to sneak up on Lizzy three times in that time.  
William came back, with fresh dressing on his jaw and a bag full of papers to be reviewed, and Lizzy sat down to her work (two more randomly-spaced checks).  
Elizabeth and Rose went out to the garden in order to check on some plant Rose wanted to show her. William spent the next thirty minutes at the window, watching them intently (two checks, she felt like an idiot for claiming she had left something in his study).  
They came back, he was back at his desk again in almost the same moment as they closed the door (she was listening at _his_ door).  
William went outside to help Brian with one of the cars. Elizabeth...  
And so on. It was like watching a very, very tiresome ping-pong match in slow motion.  
She saw both of them checking on Mina regularly, but never at the same time.  
_What the hell had happened?!_  
_Did they have a quarrel? No, they didn't seem in any way angry. Did they_ ** _ **talk**_** _? Possibly, and that would be the explanation for general awkwardness. What was the outcome? Is Lizzy staying? Should I consider actually locking them in the library?_  
It was getting late and her oaf of a brother had not made a bloody _move_.  
But at least both of them met politely at the dinner table, where William had asked Elizabeth some weird question about storage for boxes, and Elizabeth _laughed_ and said they’d have to agree to make a secondary container.  
Whatever that meant.  
Mina and Rose had spent most of the day over their books - well, Rose’s books, with Mina working on the assignments that Rose had remembered from the previous week.  
It was intolerable. It meant that these two were planning to just split again, each keeping “their” kid and… maintaining the status quo. Intolerable.  
She sat at her pianoforte and tried finding something in the music sheets spread around her, but it seemed nothing was working - no amount of Chopin, Rachmaninoff or Bach helped. Actually, piano wasn’t helping her at all.  
There was a stack of essays sent back from first correction to be reviewed and sent back to their respective publishers. There was a folder of glossy photographs she was supposed to include in something or other. There was…  
She sat back at the pianoforte.  
_Pop music. Or anything I listen to._  
She blinked, cocking her head to the side.  
_Live a little, Georgiana Darcy._  
“Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh.”  
_Wonder who notices first._  
“Oh-oh-oh-oh-ooh…”  
_OK, this sounds fine…_  
“Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh.”  
_Ha. Lizzy was right._  
“Oh-oh-oh-oh-ooh!  
I messed up tonight  
I lost another fight  
I still mess up but I'll just start again…”  
_Ha!_  
_I just hope these two will listen to the suggestion. Because if they don’t, then it is Ye Olde Broken Lock In The Library for you, dear brother. And I will make sure Brian is too busy to fix it until you two come to some agreement that doesn’t mean the girls get separated._  
_I just have to manage to do this before the mother of your children packs up and leaves you yet again._  
_Also, I’m pretty sure Mina and Rose are scheming. They’ve been much too quiet in the last few days, even considering Mina has been stuck in her bed all that time. I expected more noise out of Miss Rose and I only see her being…_  
_...ah, the ideal kid. Doing her homework, taking care of her horse, helping Mrs Reynolds, being perfectly absolutely unobtrusive. Well, they can’t just send her back to school right now without any explanation…_  
_Oh, this is such a headache._  
_I’ll kidnap the kids on Sunday and hold them until Lizzy and William negotiate new conditions. Because, really. And I’m pretty sure these two monkeys will help me!_  
  
####  
  
Thursday morning the doctor dropped in and declared Mina to be in fine condition - nothing of interest in her lungs and throat, and the prolonged coughing to be only the outcome of slight lingering inflammation, to be managed by appropriate amount of liquids and soothing gummies with - here Mina made a face - Iceland moss, no less.  
“It coats the throat and helps it to recover” he said kindly. “You’ve been preparing for a singing contest, from what your aunt told me. I can’t promise you will be ready in time - this may take a few weeks to clear completely - but if you follow the directions, it should give you a fighting chance.”  
“We’ll make sure she takes it all, as needed” Elizabeth looked sternly at her. “When do you think she will be well enough to go back to school?”  
He patted Mina’s shoulder.  
“Tuesday, Wednesday. Just try not to get soaked again this autumn, alright? Pneumonia is not fun.”  
Mina nodded solemnly.  
  
####  
  
William had to drive to the office in the morning, to resolve yet another problem with the property boundaries. It seemed that there were too many issues cropping up at the same time, each separately not that significant, but together.  
When he complained about it during breakfast, Georgiana had asked him plainly whether he thought there was something going on.  
“I’m not sure. It sounds like a paranoia, to think suddenly everyone turned against me” he stared into his coffee.  
“It’s not paranoia to think everyone is against you” Elizabeth said in a mocking tone from the door. “But it’s paranoia if you think they are working together” she sat next to Georgiana and his sister leaned into the shorter woman in welcome.  
He felt irrationally jealous of Georgiana for a moment. She was allowed to hug Lizzy, to kiss Lizzy’s cheek, to sit close, to just catch her hand when she needed. He was pretty sure he had Lizzy to thank for the Wednesday evening concert of Disney tunes that Georgiana had subjected them to (to the girls’ delight).  
  
And now he was coming home, after barely half a day at the office, already rather strung out and weary and the house seemed, magically, to _glow_.  
The windows were open and letting in the warm autumn breeze. The door was propped open with a chair and the doormat was hanging on the banister. He slowly peeked inside, looking for...  
Elizabeth was singing. That had to mean Mina was on the mend, and that all the problems with her customers were resolved. He knew from experience that there was no way a stressed Elizabeth would sing even a note. He remembered how she used to sing at weirdest times - when hanging the clothes to dry, or when sewing. Or even during cooking, although that usually ate up more of her concentration and didn't leave enough for more than a simple tune.  
Now she apparently had all the time and focus she needed, as her favourite operetta poured from the window.  
_Du bist die schönste Fee, von Debrecen bis Plattensee,_  
_Drum möcht mit dir ich hin nach Varazdin!_  
Of course she was singing both sides of each duet. She had been, for such a long time, almost all of their daughters' lives.  
He used to know how to do this relationship thing. Or rather he used to think he knew how to do this. He saw himself as a perfect boyfriend - or whatever they were at the time. He adored, he held hands, he watched attentively and he made the proper noises when she told stories. He remembered the first time she translated that text for him, and he looked at her in awe, as if _she_ was the prettiest fairy, not only between Lake Balaton and Debrecen, but between Moscow and Dublin. She had been light and flighty and he never knew what pulled him more to her - her complete obliviousness of the social sphere he lived in, her intelligence or maybe her plain disconnection from the reality around her. She lived in the world of algorithms, patterns and logic, but also of sudden flights of fancy, singing, dancing and colourful crafts.  
It seemed now, he never actually knew what he was doing, at all. He had captured the fairy, he saw it finally. He had caught her, he had chained her to the ground and he kept her prisoner until she almost gave up trying to be herself. She was supposed to go out there, to lead some revolution in the world of computers. She wanted to do things, to gain accolades for her work, to sparkle in the light.  
He made her common and plain, by forcing her into a mould of a mother and nothing more. He shaded her, starved her talents and used up her brilliance. Now he felt like a thief - and one who can never pay back for the damages, however much he may regret stealing what he took.  
Once, he thought he gave her good place to live, to be. By his side.  
Now he knew that "grounding" had more than one meaning, and where he thought he was supporting her, she saw it as anchoring her in place and clipping her wings.  
_Good thing she managed to fly away when she did. What kind of damage I could have inflicted on her otherwise..._  
  
#  
  
_Lizzy is standing in the middle of the main hall, pulling on her coat and gloves. She is a colourful splash of oranges and crimsons in the cold light of the autumn sun that shines on her like a stage light on a prima ballerina._  
_There is a suitcase by her feet and a purse on the chair._  
_She is completely, utterly alone._  
_He doesn’t hear any sounds from the house around them._  
_Walking down the stairs, he notices her bowed head, her hair once again done up in a tight, disciplined knot, her face shadowed and drawn._  
_“_ _Liz?” he ventures a question._  
_She whirls in place, facing him in surprise._  
_“_ _William” she swallows hard. “I weren’t expecting to see you.”_  
_“_ _I suppose you weren’t. Why are you leaving like this? Did you at least say goodbye to…”_  
_“_ _Yes. I told the girls I’m leaving” she wraps the scarf tightly around her neck. “I’ve told them I’ll call when I can.”_  
_“_ _But, Liz… Why are you going?” he steps around her to look her in the face. “They will miss you.”_  
_“_ _They will have you and Georgiana” she says softly. “William, they will… They are good girls, both of them. Take care of them, please.”_  
_“_ _Liz, I’m not going to allow you just to leave like this. You can’t. They need you.”_  
_**I need you.**_  
_“_ _I’ll come on the weekends. If they decide they want to see me, of course. I don’t expect they would, however.”_  
_“_ _What are you talking about, Elizabeth?”_  
_Her eyes are red-rimmed and swollen._  
_“_ _This is my punishment, William. Only mine. They will be better off here than with me. You are a much better parent than I’d ever be…”_  
_“_ _Elizabeth!"_  
_"I broke us. It's my fault."_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sooo... your thoughts? :)


	13. And we will never part

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They talk. They agree...  
> ...or do they?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Target chapter count is up to 19 :)

Any moment now Mrs Reynolds would be calling them for dinner.  
Their seventh evening together.  
She took another turn and passed under a small vine-covered gate.  
The gardens were almost the same as she remembered them. Of course, the last time she had seen them in fall was when she was so depressed she could barely recognise colours. In fact, the girls' first birthday had surprised her a bit, and only with its sudden nearness she had noted she had been steadily isolating herself from anything but the children and her dissertation, down to the point when e-mail became a more frequent mode of communication than speaking for her.  
_Stop it, Lizzy._  
She was much better now. Not good, but way better than she used to be. She had gone through enough therapy to last her a lifetime. Counselling. Yoga. Meditation. Medication. Guided imagery (which was one that she actually found useful later on, too). Breathing techniques. She drew a line at alternative medicine, but had tried everything else she had been able to cram into her already rather full schedule.  
  
####  
  
Mary had been godsend, both taking care of Mina when Elizabeth attended her sessions and finding, through her uni society friends, various options of therapy for Elizabeth to follow.  
Finding themselves in a sudden role reversal -- with eleven months between them, it had usually been Elizabeth who played the guiding role for Mary -- they settled into a new dynamics rather neatly. Elizabeth worked on her dissertation and it was kind of miraculous how it suddenly progressed once she accepted the inevitable and introduced the correct drugs, added a regular routine of mental self-care and agreed to be a subject of some experimental relaxation sessions by Mary's friends. Mary was preparing data for her own thesis, and for that Elizabeth had provided some helpful tools, including an easy to use database of objects Mary was analysing. Mina was reasonably achieving her expected milestones of the second year.  
Elizabeth tried very hard not to think about Rose too much. Or about William. Not thinking about William was particularly challenging whenever she was required to discuss her interpersonal relations with her therapist. She tried to isolate thoughts about him and Rose from her everyday life, and despite the nice psychologist's entreaties to the contrary, she managed to keep it so for two months. She had a job to do - the dissertation to finish, all the university formalities to be closed and  _viva_  to be prepared for, so she couldn't afford to get sidetracked. Still, the holiday season was stronger than her. She broke down just before Christmas.  
She wrote a letter.  
Before writing, she had considered several options. After all, there was more than one way to communicate.  
Considering how her throat just closed up every time she had to talk  _about_  William, she could not really imagine talking  _to_  him. On the phone, or, even worse, face to face.  
Text message felt much too direct.  
E-mail slightly less so, but still, it was something that would produce a nearly instant reaction. Or was supposed to. And the last thing she wanted was an instant reaction. She very much preferred a nice, reasonable delay  
Her hands shook as she folded together the printout of the confirmation of the date of her  _viva_  and the page hastily scrawled with apologies and a declaration.  
  
_If you come, I promise, we will work on this._  
  
He never did.  
When she had confessed to the therapist that she had written the letter, the woman had cautiously lauded her for the step. The fact that no answer ever came, and that in four weeks time she was a newly minted MSc and engineer, and no closer to reconciliation... Well, even the most optimistic psychologist couldn't dispute the outcome. He was not willing to reconnect. She could only try to restructure herself around that fact.  
So she slipped into a routine of very carefully not thinking about William and Rose, which held firm until the next time Mina did something milestone-worthy, which made Lizzy curl up on her bed and cry herself to sleep.  
  
####  
  
And now, she was here. All four of them back together, almost exactly thirteen years, in a few days. Pure heaven mixed equally with pure hell.  
  
Wednesday had been hell. Hell of indecision. She couldn't think, she couldn't write, she couldn't bloody focus. Only when William came back from the office - and the police station - had she managed to sit down to her computer and work on the code she needed to finish correcting. Before Rose came to fetch her for their agreed walk in the flower garden she had managed to correct and submit all but two points raised by the client. She logged the hours spent in the client's system, checked the total count, multiplied it by the hourly rate and felt a wave of vague discomfort. It summed up to a lot, with the express rate they had accepted, together with the new features they requested and various modifications. She really hoped they wouldn't suddenly decide to reduce the rate for some reason. Yes, she had a contract with them, and a written agreement for the special rate, but she had one just like that the year earlier, and what came out of it? It was a different company, of course, but it wasn't that uncommon a practice, unfortunately.  
Damn it, she couldn't afford another dispute. If they decided to retract the promised express rate, she would take what they'd pay. She couldn't responsibly risk not getting paid at all. And with the lack of solution to the issue of storage they had raised she had a feeling they could try to reduce the payment somehow.  
But if they did pay as they had promised, she would be able to finally add to her savings. She had to use up part of the money the year before - three months of work with nought to show for it - and was rebuilding it slowly now.  
Still, the risk was there, always, with the way she worked. There was only one solution - she had to find a position in a company that would at the same time offer stability and accept the need for flexibility of working hours. It would require polishing up her CV, going through a few courses to re-establish her skills and produce appropriate certificates and, what she hated the most, interviews. This would affect her working time, but she could do this, if she made appropriate preparations. That meant making sure Mina was secure, taken care of and happy. And there was only one way to do that.  
  
#  
  
"Kitten?"  
Mina looked up from over her tablet, where she was looking for some Italian vocabulary, so Elizabeth closed the door behind her and crossed the room to sit on the bed.  
"Kitten... I need you to now be very, very honest with me."  
"What's wrong?"  
"Nothing, not... well, except for the whole mess that we've all made" she smirked and Mina joined her. "But we can work it out. And I have an idea, but I need to discuss it with you first."  
"Fire away. Because I've been stuck in this bed for the last week and I'm dying for some usable solutions! I..."  
"Mina, I've got one. I just need you to consider and, you know. Just tell me what you think."  
"Sure. So? What is it?"  
"I still need to talk to your father about it, but I think it would be better if you stayed with him and Rose, here."  
Mina fiddled with the tablet for a moment.  
"And?"  
"And I would..." Elizabeth sighed. "I would find a new, smaller place. Something I can afford without depending on your grandparents. And I'd start looking for a normal, regular job."  
Her daughter frowned.  
"But what about us? When would you visit us?"  
"Every weekend even. Wherever I find the job, I can be here Friday evening. And then we can do whatever you two wish for two days."  
Mina nodded slowly, but bit her lip.  
_Uh-oh._  
"Mom, am I that much trouble?"  
_Oh, kitten._  
"No, no way" Elizabeth pulled her closer. "No. It's just me. I'm... I'm not as well organised as I should be. I should have done something about our situation earlier, but there never seemed to be  _time_. And now, this week kind of gave me a... not a break. But it's not the same as it used to be, right?"  
"No" Mina burrowed into her a bit. "So... it's not my fault?"  
"No, darling. Never your fault. Now, I have to discuss this with your father, which will be of course a bit of..." she sighed. "A challenge. But I will. And you know he loves you, right?"  
"I suppose so."  
"And I love you, ducky. And remember, it's not your fault."  
"Mhm."  
  
#  
  
And it was a brilliant solution for several issues at the same time.  
One, the girls would stay together, which was the priority anyway.  
Two, they needed their father and William more than deserved more time with them.  
Three, he was much better qualified to provide for them materially than she was at the moment.  
She only had to keep her temperament in check and discuss it with him calmly, without giving in to the pride and stubbornness. Oh, she was no little submissive woman to go and beg the big, strong man to help her.  She had to put it in terms of making it right for the girls. Their children's wellbeing was paramount, and Pemberley was the place where they would be much more comfortable than anywhere else.  
She swallowed, hard. It would hurt to be parted from them, but she would make do. With Mina in a better school - anything was better than her current one, rather obviously, but Rose's school sounded quite acceptable - and under her father's care, Elizabeth could take a moment and regroup. Rethink. Rebuild. Once she managed to find a stable situation, she could safely reclaim her place in their life. And then, maybe, they could consider something more. Moving to Lambton would be easy as long as she worked freelance, but if she found a job, she would be stuck wherever the job was located, at least at the beginning.  
But that would be fine. They would be fine, at some point. It could take a few months, but she could do it, as long as she knew that the girls were fine. And even if the new job kept her in one place for some time, still, she'd have weekends. There was no place in the country from which she couldn't get to Derbyshire in a reasonable time. Manchester was a bit over an hour away, York just under two hours. There were IT centres in York, various companies. London, obviously, would take longer, but was still a viable option. Everything was a viable option as long as she was allowed to visit them.  
When she managed to convince the two little horrors to put off watching the end of "The Last Crusade" and could finally lie down in "her" room, it was so late she could barely keep awake long enough to make notes of the most important points to be completed.  
  
#  
  
Thursday was so much easier. Having made the decision, she felt as if a weight was lifted from her shoulders. She found herself overseeing Mina's Italian essay and, in the other room, Rose was going over chemistry exercises, calling for her assistance from time to time.  
It was strangely relaxing. Liberating even.  
Taking a few passes on her tiptoes, she carefully made a proper pirouette in the middle of the stone corridor. Looking down at her fourth position feet, Elizabeth made a plie and switched to a waltz.  
_Herrgott, was ist denn heut los?_  
_Herrgott, was hab ich denn blos?_  
A few more steps of Viennese took her to the window at the end of the corridor and she opened it, letting in a gust of fresh air, smelling faintly of wood smoke and moisture.  
_Dass heut mein Blut so pulsiert,_  
_dass heut mein Blut so moussiert,_  
_Herrgott, ach Herrgott, was kann das nur sein?_  
_Ach jetzt fällt mir's ein._  
One-two-three-one-two-three. To the other end of the corridor. The impulse to let the air in, to cleanse the stuffiness of the  _ages_. To air away the last remnants of Catherine and Anne, too. If she was leaving Mina here, the least she could do was to make sure the house was free of any traces of these two, including even dust. She would ask Mrs Reynolds for contact to some cleaning crew in the area and book them to come and deal with the two closed rooms. But there was time. There was absolutely no hurry.  
Mina was much better already - her cough coming only when she overtaxed herself trying to argue with her or Rose over something. The doctor had declared her ready to go back to school on Tuesday or Wednesday the latest and Lizzy tried to suppress the thrill she felt as she imagined Rose's face at the news that they'd be going there together.  
  
#  
  
On Friday, William went to the office rather late. He looked a bit peaky, but when she asked, he just shrugged and waved it away, saying something vague about too much happening in too little time. She could only agree with that sentiment.  
She pulled a chair out to the back stairs and sat there, legs on the stone bannister, laptop comfortably perched on a cushion. It took her two hours to close the last two issues, get them tested by the customer's testers, receive final confirmation and a signoff on the invoice.  
In full amount.  
She was done. It hadn't been the most irritating project, barring the idiocy of the storage problem - which she just couldn't solve, however much she turned it around in her head. She smiled at the memory of William serving as her rubber duck. It hadn't been the first time, but his volunteering for the role meant a lot for her. The fact that he remembered the idea at all felt heartening.  
  
####  
  
**"Will, I need to talk something through with you" she looked up from her screen to find him watching her in slight surprise.**  
**"You do remember I have an MBA and not an engineering degree?" he folded his newspaper slowly.**  
**"That's the idea" she shrugged. "I have a problem that I need to take apart. I need to reduce it to points that will be so simple that everyone could understand them."**  
**"No matter how dense" he quipped, making her snort into her cup, just a bit.**  
**"Yeah, no matter how dense, Colonel. Do you have fifteen minutes to play rubber ducky?"**  
**"Is this some kind of weird insult, or do you actually need my help with... a bathroom accessory?"**  
**"I need to talk to you for a moment as if you didn't understand at all what I'm doing."**  
**"That should be easy. I usually don't get most of what you're doing on that black monster."**  
**"OK. Now. Imagine you're a big, yellow duck..."**  
**"Elizabeth" he growled and she felt a small flush of warmth somewhere inside.**  
**"Fine, fine. The idea is that if I talk about a problem step by step, making it simple enough for a rubber duck to understand, I will at some point spot the problem. I always feel weird talking to inanimate objects, so I need to voice a few points and I need your confirmation that you follow and understand my reasoning..."**  
  
####  
  
"Elizabeth? Aren't you getting chilled out here?"  
She blinked and looked down at her hibernated laptop - luckily quite secure for the time being, but it was a good thing she was awoken.  
"No, Mrs Reynolds, but thank you. I'm quite fine."  
She picked up her things anyway. The job was done, she deserved an early break, after the week of express work and last minute corrections. She would be notified the moment the money transfer was on her account, but for the time being it seemed like there should be no obstacles to her getting the full sum.  
"I've just made some tea" the older woman called her as Elizabeth dragged the chair back to the dining room. "If you have a moment, darling, come to the kitchen. I need your advice on something."  
"Just let me put the laptop away safely" she placed it on the sideboard and followed the housekeeper down to her domain.  
The main table was covered with what seemed to be at least two layers of interior design magazines, catalogues and colour samples.  
"What is this all about, Mrs Reynolds?"  
"You see, darling, William tells me nothing" the older woman started slowly. "But he has some plans. He's been asking questions about the kitchens and finally he brought all... this. And I'm not sure what to choose!"  
Elizabeth rounded the table, looking at the amassed reading material.  
"And what did he ask you to choose? Colours? Specific items?"  
"'Anything you would need in your kitchen' he said. It seems much too general for me, so..." the older woman shrugged and gestured towards the table. "This."  
Elizabeth picked up one of the magazines and flipped through it.  
"We could bring some semblance of order to this" she said. "Let's divide them. One heap, only kitchen magazines. Second heap, kitchen catalogues. Third heap, general magazines and the fourth, general catalogues. This way we'll have different categories to work with."  
They slowly divided the glossies into types and stacked them neatly on a side table.  
"Now, William asked what you want in the kitchen? Not what do you want it to look like?"  
"That, too. But first what I want."  
"Ah. So, first, you can make a list, without looking at the magazines. You want a range, an oven, a vent...?"  
Mrs Reynolds smiled and pulled a thick pad of paper from a drawer.  
"You were always a smart one, Elizabeth. I knew you could help me with this. Will just... left these and almost ran away, I don't know what this boy is about these days."  
They made a list of things that already  _were_  in the Pemberley kitchen, making notes on every item that they could think could be replaced or improved. They drank the tea, brought a lunch up to the girls (Mina: English essay, Rose: French vocabulary) and continued with the list.  
"Maybe a bigger fridge?" Elizabeth prodded the catalogue towards the housekeeper. "May be useful before bigger events."  
"Well, the biggest 'event' in this decade is the two of you coming back home" Mrs Reynolds remarked sourly. "Not like I have a lot of occasions to show off my skills, apart from a birthday cake now and then. Not even a proper Christmas - not that I'd ever wanted to celebrate with  _these two_. You know what I mean."  
Elizabeth's stomach felt suddenly heavy and cold.  
_Back home._  
"Ah, Mrs R" she said softly. "I'm not staying. I... I came because the girls switched, and I have to go back to London. I do all of my work remotely, but sometimes - I have a meeting on Monday I have to attend personally" she stumbled on her on words, trying to justify something that didn't  _really_  need justification.  
The housekeeper's face fell.  
"If you think it's the best..." she paused. "Well, I remember how it'd been, before. But William changed. A lot. It was... incredible to watch it, you know."  
"It had been bad" Elizabeth confirmed, not looking up from the magazine she was holding. "And I see he changed. I just... I can't just..."  
"I know, lassie, I know. And the house is still the same awful pile of stone and mortar it used to be, and it's still as ancient - or, rather, a decade older than it was!"  
"Maybe William wants to do something about it? Updating the kitchens won't affect the status of the house too much - they were done just after the war anyway, so no historical society will try to intervene if he wants to make it more... modern" she gestured to the fifties-style fridge that looked, frankly, as if it should have a label "lead-lined" attached somewhere.  
"Well, fixing up my kitchen won't make the whole house easier to manage. It's still a pain to heat and clean. Everything is too high, too leaky or too old to be scrubbed properly . At least I don't have to do the cleaning itself - Will hires a group of youngsters from the area to do that."  
"Hmm?" she opened a catalogue and left only half of her attention to Mrs Reynolds.  
"He had hired a team of students... oh, I don't know. When Rosie was three, maybe? Whole summer, they went through the house, cellar to attic - boxing everything, cleaning, securing, archiving. Then during the school year he got them to come back every first weekend of the month to do a thorough cleaning, windows and all. The kids organise in a kind of group and they even set up an actual company that runs this kind of service, all proper and legal. They don't touch the really antique stuff downstairs, this is done by a specialist, but upstairs and the halls and so on, yes. And they help the estate crew during summer and in early fall, fruit collection and so on. Two years ago we got so many apples William actually paid them for additional two weekends and they sat and peeled the whole crop. We still have jars of apple pie stuffing in the storage, we made so much. I gave them a lot, too. Students are always hungry and homemade food is in demand" she winked at Elizabeth.  
"I remember. We were always better off, with Jane - we can both cook and we had a kitchen, unlike these poor souls who lived in dorms. Sometimes I wondered how they survive on instant noodles and fastfood."  
"Well, that's why I gave them part of whatever we made. Cherries, blackberries, bilberries. Pears, plums, even walnuts. We made wonderful pickled walnuts that year. And the locals had honey, so we also made some jars of nuts in honey, too. Well, anyway, William has been hiring the same group ever since - the kids change, of course, because it's only students, so once they graduate, they go and find a real proper job - but he says he'd rather support students who get honestly paid than some big cleaning company that takes most of the money and leaves people with just pennies. And he pays way more than waitressing jobs, and much more steadily. They get a set hourly rate at the beginning of summer and then only count hours in and out. Some are even sleeping in the free rooms in the admin building, if they say they want to start earlier or can't drive here."  
Elizabeth nodded, hiding a smile.  
"Very... socially conscious of him."  
"That it is, that it is. I suppose this weekend the team would be able to deal with the... leftovers."  
"I was actually planning to ask you just that. I'm not very keen on touching  _anything_  they might have left behind, and I'm guessing neither is William. I know --" she breathed deeply "I'm not staying. But that doesn't mean I'm not coming back, and if there is one thing I can do - after William had so kindly removed them from the house - is to make sure their presence is properly erased from these rooms, once and for all."  
"They will be here early in the morning. I wake up at six anyway, so I can get them started on the fruit collection, as it's better to do this as long as there is good light, and then they can start inside the house."  
"Do you have enough boxes? Or should we call them to bring some?"  
"Ah! Lassie, you  _are_  the smart one. Not sure what  _they_  left, but I'll take a peek and call the nice woman who manages the bookings and ask her to make sure they have the boxes."  
Elizabeth nodded and flipped another catalogue open.  
"Oooh" she sighed. "That looks  _sleek_."  
"Elizabeth! This is not a sound appropriate for  _kitch_... Oh."  
"Wow."  
"Don't be juvenile, lassie."  
"Oh, Mrs R, it is definitively a 'wow'. Look at this."  
"Too red. And... It looks somewhat improper."  
"OK, there is a version in... No, black doesn't help much."  
"I'd have to cook with me poor eyes closed!"  
"Silver?"  
"Silver... much better. Buy why don't people just stick with good old white?"  
"Some people like  _fun_ , Mrs R. So, should we put it on the list?"  
"Just make sure it's silver or white, or I will die of embarrassment."  
Elizabeth added the sleek, handy little hand blender to the list and smiled at the housekeeper, who was looking at her with a mixture of exasperation and sorrow.  
"I missed you, lassie. They missed you, too. He was absolute rubbish when you left."  
She sighed.  
"Mrs Reynolds --"  
"I don't mean you were  _wrong_  to do it. Well, it wasn't  _good_ , but I was here, and that boy escaped a well-tanned hiney only because he had been balancing the company and these two... well. At the same time. But he  _did_  neglect you rather awfully, and there was no excusing  _that_."  
" _You_  helped" Elizabeth said shortly.  
"Well, but he was the one who  _should_  have been helping! He definitely got a crash course in being a father in the weeks after you left, I can tell you  _that_. I'd never seen him that shaken before. Well, little Rosie kicked up a fuss when he didn't put the jacket on her correctly or tried to convince her to eat something but oatmeal for breakfast... Oh, Lord, lassie, don't cry! I didn't mean to... oh, Elizabeth, I'm so sorry..."  
  
#  
  
She couldn't just leave them like this.  
She had to. It would be better for all of them.  
William would have both girls.  
Girls would have each other.  
She would have a chance to fix her situation.  
  
She had to go inside and have dinner with the others.  
She considered the red blouse still waiting in her suitcase. Because why not. Once she had finally embraced something more advanced in the colour palette than simple creams, it had still taken her a long time to open herself to  _vividness_.  
She could do vivid now. Orange red was  _vivid_.  
Not that it helped her all that much. Playing with colours can't really make it better if inside one is feeling grey.  
  
####  
  
He sat up.  
Very stereotypically, he was drenched in sweat.  
There was a fleeting thought there that thankfully he had been sleeping under a thin fleece blanket instead of his duvet - because it was Elizabeth who was using it. He knew as much because he had moved it himself from the cot in the, well, what he now labelled "girls' room". It gave him a certain level of satisfaction, knowing that she was safely, warmly ensconced in it, just down the corridor. She needed it more than he did, anyway, with her petite built and permanent overusage of stored energy.  
Now, there was no other way to look at that mess.  
He pressed the heel of his hand to his heart, trying to make it slow down.  
One. The girls should not be separated again.  
Two. They needed Elizabeth's presence, and quite obviously Elizabeth needed them.  
Three. He had more than sufficient resources to ensure their comfort.  
He sighed. Progress to point the fourth was much more of a challenge. How to ensure Elizabeth's and girls' comfort without it seeming like she owed him now, instead of her parents.  
He rubbed his eyes, trying to wake up.  
One thing was certain. Whatever the outcome of the whole mess, Mina and Lizzy would not be staying in that flat any longer than necessary. He would phrase it as the long overdue child support or, basically, whatever else he could think of. And Mina wouldn't be going back to that institution that called itself a school. He would ask Jane and Charles for help if needed. Georgiana would definitely be supportive, if not with finding better explanations for the money, then with convincing Lizzy to take it. He was ready to rope in Kitty Bennet (or whatever she called herself now) - there was no love lost between them two, but she had always seemed like a very down to earth person and she did care for Elizabeth. After all, she had cornered him during the wedding and interrogated him about his plans regarding Elizabeth. She had been rather frightening as a barely eighteen, acting on her fresh status as an adult and threatening a man she thought undeserving of her sister.  
Maybe if he presented it is as his contribution to Mina's wellbeing, she should take it. If he didn't overdo it and make her feel it was him pointing out she is unable to provide for Mina properly.  
Maybe if Rose... he paused here, thoughtfully. Yes, Rose.  
He shied away from the idea of point the fifth - making sure they all  _stay_.  
Elizabeth was an independent professional. The "independent" part was a very strong factor. She would not accept handouts. She would also not take well to anyone trying to control her decisions. Manipulation was out of question - even if he had an idea  _how_  - and even considering it made him feel dirty.  
They could try talking plainly and honestly, probably. If they ever managed to be in the same room and able to speak without saying complete rubbish. He cringed a bit as he recalled the way he had told her about his twisted knee.  
But she did seem to be engaged and empathic. She seemed interested. In a totally random - and not very important - fact from his life. Well, maybe it was only due to its relation to Rose's illness.  
He wanted to know as much as possible about  _her_  life, and Charles' stories were definitely not enough to satisfy his curiosity, especially considering that there was exactly one - no, two - persons who could tell him in detail, fully and truly, what was the everyday life of Elizabeth Bennet, except for the woman herself. Because she would definitely never do so of her own volition and he would not be one to pressure her into  _anything_.  
That was why, having taken a quick shower and after informing the office he'd be in "at an unspecified time, unless there's something major happening" he went in search of Rose.  
When he checked the girls' room, Mina was measuring out the cough syrup with a tortured exp ****ression of someone who can't even think about artificial strawberry flavour anymore and she shrugged when he asked about her sister.  
"...but I'm guessing the stables" she said and swallowed a spoonful. "Buergh. Because she said something about hay."  
He hugged her, handed her the book that had fallen to the floor and smiled, all silently.  
If he didn't work it out with Elizabeth, this was the girl he would be losing any day now. The little mirror image of Rose, but with all the fascinating tiny differences. A little more combative. A bit less elegant. At the same time, definitely more into dresses and less into getting dirty.  
Now that he had both of them at home at the same time, he started noticing the differences that were not that obvious when it was just Mina playing Rose. He could sit for hours, thinking about these details and how they came to be.  
He needed more time with them.  _All_  of them.  
  
#  
  
Rose was, in fact, in the stables. Sitting in the hay loft, looking outside at the long green expanse of the paddock.  
"Hi, imp" he dropped on a small mound of dry grasses next to her.  
"Dad."  
"I'm going to ask you something and I don't want to beat around the bush or... whatever. I need you to answer me as completely as you can. If you think you can't tell me something, you know you just need to say that."  
"Sure" Rose nodded, looking at him with a frown.  
"You... Mina told you about the letters?"  
His older daughter bit her lip and looked away.  
"Aunt Catherine stole them and burnt them" she said tersely. "Because she didn't want Mom and you to talk."  
"Yes. But... But there was more."  
"Gifts" she sighed. "Mom made things for me. You sent things for Mina."  
"Exactly. Now, Rose, the crucial question" he pulled her into his side, hugging her closer. "How important are the handmade things to your Mom?"  
He saw her glance at him in surprise.  
"Dad?"  
"I need to know how... how much time she spends on preparing them. On sewing, knitting and so on. How... How invested she is in making them."  
Rose sat back, leaning on the wall.  
"Dad, it's like her second job" she said slowly. "I mean, she spends hours plotting patterns and draws special plans on her computer to help her do it properly. Half of her room is storage space for boxes and boxes of... things."  
"So, pretty important, yes?"  
"'Pretty important' would be correct" she shook her head. "I mean, if aunt Catherine had burnt something that Mom did, she must be, like,  _crushed_. She spends  _hours and hours_  on preparing things. I only saw her plan a quilt for a Christmas competition and we've spent an entire afternoon just sorting the pieces and then she plotted that beautiful poinsettia on her computer and made it into a pattern for that huge quilt. And she planned to make another, with a snowflake..." Rose paused and covered her lips with her hand. "So the snowflake was supposed to be for  _me_?"  
Pure wonder in Rose's voice almost made him weep.  
"If she was making two similar things and one would have ended up with Mina, the second was probably for you, yes."  
"Mina  _said_  that Mom was making two of everything, so..." Rose's eyes watered. "And Mina's room is  _full_  of stuff Mom made. If she had sent a pair to each here, and aunt Catherine had stolen them, it's like  _weeks_ , or, or  _months_  of work lost!"  
He had suspected as much.  
"So... And now I'm asking you to speculate, Rose, so I know this is a bit..."  
The eyeroll was  _all_  Elizabeth.  
"Dad, just get on with this."  
"Well. What would you say if someone told you that Mom's handmade is stupid and useless?"  
Yeah. That was what Rose looked like when she was  _honestly_  angry, yes. A rare thing, reserved for kids who hurt horses, aunt Catherine and now, apparently, whoever had disparaged Elizabeth.  
"I'd say that they were listening too much to grandpa Bennet" she mumbled. "He says crap like this all the time."  
"Rose."  
"Well, he does! And it is crap! He always says things like this about whatever Mom does that isn't her work. Actually, her work is stupid, too, because she works freelance and not at a university."  
"So, Elizabeth's father says that her crafts are useless, yes?"  
"Stupid, useless, pointless, waste of time, why don't you buy that in a shop like a normal person, I've seen similar in Tesco, why would anyone even look at it... All of that and more. And it's not like I've been spending a lot of time with him, too. And Mom wins prizes for her things, and he is all the time like, like a grumpy old troll. If she isn't working on her PhD, it's stupid. Including Mina."  
He took a deep breath.  
"What do you mean?"  
"I overheard him" she looked away, reddening. "He said that Mom had wasted her life on being a  _mother_  when she could have been something one day. Unless Mina becomes someone important in the field, like, like an astronaut or something."  
_Well, that was rather..._  
"And he said she should have focused on her doctoral thesis instead of wasting time working for corporations that can't recognise how brilliant she is. But then he added something like 'before she uses up all her brain crocheting' or, I don't know, something like this."  
"Ah" he chewed on the inside of his cheek for a moment. "You don't like him?"  
She shrugged.  
"Didn't really have much to do with him. I think he doesn't really like Mina all that much. I mean, he doesn't like Mom having Mina. He is disappointed that Mina doesn't have the best grades in everything and that Mom isn't pressing her to do some weird engineering degree."  
He sank slowly backwards, looking up at the loft roof. Very, very carefully he set that point aside. It wouldn't do to curse in front of his teen, now would it? Especially if he wanted to say things about said teen's only grandfather?  
_That sounds like something to be discussed with Lizzy._  
"And he speaks like this about your Mom's... everything?"  
"As much as he said anything ever, sure. Never heard him say anything  _positive_."  
"Mhm. And others? I mean, I suppose aunt Jane likes the things your mother makes?"  
"Not sure, but it looked like it. Mina would know better. Aunt Janey definitely likes Mom's baking, that much I know. And it's, like, the same category, right?"  
He had seen Jane wearing a jumper and a knit hat that had the distinct feel of "not factory made". And Charles, whose long fingers didn't fit most ready-made gloves, had been wearing a pair of woollen, striped ones at some point, and they... well, he was apparently  _looking_  for things, because when had he noticed another guy's  _gloves_  the last time?  
"And others? Kitty, Mary?"  
"No clue. Never mentioned it."  
"Grandma?"  
Rose rolled her eyes.  
"Grandma  _loves_  it. Especially when Mom makes something for her. She calls it pretty and sweet. And she has a lot of Mom's stuff in the dining room, now that I think about it. On the sofa, there was this crocheted throw that looked a bit like what Mom made for Mina, a big striped star. And" she frowned "and grandma asked Mom to make the chair cushions. And there were all these pillows and the big doughnut pillow..."  
"So, grandma Bennet likes Mom's handmade and grandpa Bennet..."  
"Hates it. Yeah."  
"But it's not like he would destroy something?"  
"Nah, he more like comments on it, every chance he gets. Even when Mom brought some crochet she was doing to a dinner and, you know, basically she couldn't be, like,  _working_ there, right? He still said stuff like this."  
He nodded slowly.  
"So if I told you it was Mom that said that her handmade is silly and useless?"  
Rose groaned.  
"She listens to grandpa Bennet  _way_  too much. She made all these things - for Mina and for me, right? - and Mina's room looks like a little craft fair stand. She has suncatchers in her window and the rugs, and blankets and Mom even made her marker pouches and hanging pockets and... You know. Stuff. A lot."  
He nodded silently.  
_Elizabeth spent **time**_   _on all of that. And now she says she doesn't **care**_   _that it got destroyed? I didn't make the things I've sent and I'm still pretty annoyed about them..._  
"And it's not useless. It's like... like having someone say over and over that they care, you know? I was jealous..." she paused and he saw blush creeping up her face. "I mean when I saw all of them. She spent, like, hours on that. She even pays to rent a machine in the special shop that allows her to sew the big quilts so she doesn't have to do it on the normal small machine. And she spends hours picking the right fabric and putting the colours together. She says it's relaxing, but she is, like, very very focused on this."  
"But is anyone..." he thought about it for a moment. "I mean. Did anyone say, well. That it's nice? Useful?"  
"Grandma" Rose reminded him. "Well, and Mina. Mina can talk about this for  _hours_. Mom taught her how to do a lot of this stuff, and she tried to teach me, during the camp, but we didn't have enough time..."  
_And Elizabeth always tended to listen more to her father than her mother. Which, usually, was the more sensible approach._  
"And you...?" he prompted her.  
She grimaced.  
"When I was playing Mina, I couldn't really, because, you know, she wouldn't be saying every day that she loves that quilt that Mom made, like, three years ago, right? That would seem silly. And then when I told her that's it was me, we really didn't have enough time, and anyway, it would have sounded like I'm jealous of Mina for having all that stuff!"  
"But you  _do_  like it, right? I mean, if, well, if these packages got to us... and I told you..." he trailed off. "Well, blast it. What could I have told you about a crocheted blanket?"  
She rolled her eyes.  
"Considering Mom put messages inside, you could probably have contacted her at that point like a normal grownup? Because, Dad, really. You two?  _Letters_?"  
"Hey, don't diss your parents, little one" he punched her shoulder. "I've talked about it with her, anyway. Seems..." he shrugged. "Well, we don't do  _talking_  very well, either of us. Apparently, both of us are better at writing, which is an effective way of communicating - as long as the message gets through."  
Rose made a derisive sound but didn't comment.  
He picked out a longer blade of grass and started pulling it apart slowly.  
"Dad, what is wrong?"  
His daughter,  _his older daughter_  was looking at him, all tense and anxious.  
"Except for 'our lives'?" he quipped, a bit bitterly. "No, sorry, Rosie, that was unfair. But a bit true, too. I mean, we need to work this out, don't we?"  
She nodded and picked a blade for herself.  
"Mom has to transfer Mina to some other school" she said sternly. "Because the current one is awful. And they have to have a new place because that flat is owned by her parents and she feels like she owes them for it."  
"I feel a 'but' coming" he provided when she paused.  
"But she can't afford it. I mean, the flat. She kind of told me - when she thought I was Mina - that she's afraid to move because sometimes she isn't sure she can pay for the month if something happens with the clients. And that something happened in February last year - and Mina told me  _what_  - and if it was someone else but grandfather, they could have lost the flat."  
"That was the company that refused to pay her in full?" he ventured a guess, but there were already gears spinning in his mind, calculating the best approach, the proper way of framing it...  
"Yes, they said that if she doesn't like the rates they pay women, she can wait until the court case."  
"She won that one, from what Charles said" he said absently.  
"Yeah, but that meant she will only get money, like, now. And not back last year, when she needed it."  
He nodded slowly.  
"Do you think... Do you imagine your Mom would accept..."  
She shook her head.  
"No way. I mean,  _no way_. When she explained about the flat, she was angry enough. And it's like... like they are holding this over her head, just a bit. I don't see her accepting much from anyone else."  
_When did you grow up that much, imp?_  
"I wonder... Dad, did we really mess her life up so much? I mean, she is... so stretched. What... what was she like, you know, before?"  
_You are growing up, definitely._  
"Not that different, actually. I mean, I almost didn't notice her at first, I'm sorry to say. But when I did, I couldn't understand her, or myself."  
  
####  
  
**There was a girl sitting in the corner of Charles' newest angel's tiny kitchen. In long, oatmeal-coloured jumper, beige denims and grey woollen socks. And pink glittery clips all over her messy hair. She looked up at him, nodded and went back to scowling at the screen of her rather shiny black laptop. As he looked around the kitchen, taking in the details - tiny range, lots of jars with preserves, hooks for all kinds of implements, from spatulas to sieves - she grumbled, made rude noises and banged at her keyboard in frustration.**  
**He remembered having seen her before, but couldn't place it. Must have been a lot of people and she must have been... utterly unremarkable. Except that he _did_** **remember her, somehow, a bit. So she must have done or said something that...**  
**Ah. The folksy girl. The cremes and beiges of her current attire morphed into the cream and pale pink of the linen outfit she was wearing at the time. Jane's little sister, apparently, whom Jane had to convince to leave the flat and see people. Someone made a remark about... whatever that was. A harvest fair probably. And quoted a song. The girl frowned and corrected the quote. He couldn't remember what the song was, what the quote was about, or anything else, except for the exp ****ression in her wide eyes as she stared up at him in annoyance when he glibly disparaged the necessity of correctly quoting _folk songs_.**  
**The same eyes were now sparkling with anger as she fought with something on that incongruously spiffy machine. In her unbleached cotton and wool, she looked like an escapee from a community of eco-natural-green wackos, but the computer in front of her screamed "twenty-first century" with all the sleek lines and large screen.**  
**"Need help?" he offered offhandedly. "I mean, I'm no expert, but maybe...?"**  
**"Seriously?" she snorted, not even looking up at him. "Sure, give it a whack. Do you have some useful ideas as to how to modify a multi-layer neural network structure to allow for time dependency, so that an effective phoneme-separation algorithm for speech recognition would work on different speech patterns and speed?"**  
**And she smiled at him, a bit crookedly.**  
**And he had absolutely no idea what she was talking about.**  
**"I thought so. So, if you excuse me, I need to force this stupid thing to cooperate or my advisor will be more disappointed with me than he is already."**  
**He came back, again and again. Charles was "just dropping off shopping" for Jane (which usually took much longer than William would say "just dropping off" should take) and he was stuck in the kitchen-cum-living-room with Elizabeth. Charles reminded him that they had even been introduced already once, on a picnic Charles had organised for his team. And they had met, fleetingly, as Jane dragged Elizabeth to one event or another, where the girl stood silent and stiff (sometimes trying to read a book she had smuggled in in her handbag) - unless someone gave her an opening. Then she opened up, certainly. Happily discussing very esoteric and disparate topics - from folk music, to the history of British wool industry, to the future of artificial intelligence. Now that Charles had pointed it out to him, he could recall moments when he had seen her interacting with others, engaging elderly ladies in conversation about their various accessories and sometimes joining Jane when the topic turned to, of all things, baking.**  
**It all seemed so completely incompatible with the computer industry that it took him a few weeks to accept that the tiny woman was, in fact, an engineering major. He tried making fun of it, but she frowned and humpf-ed with exasperation when he made a joke about programming a washing machine. In hindsight, she must have heard that one at least a dozen times before.**  
**He wasn't interested. Not at all. She was strange, she was from a completely different background and her dissertation subject had more specialised words than proper English ones. She was not someone he would have imagined being interested in. Absolutely. Never.**  
**Dammit.**  
**She was also outspoken when she finally joined the conversation, exceedingly competent in her chosen areas, surprisingly confident socially if the element of business relationship was removed and very, very protective of Jane. He couldn't imagine anyone more perfect.**  
**But he was not interested in her at all. _At all._**  
**He barely spoke to her after that exchange about speech recognition - but by carefully asking Charles, he had learnt that she had been granted a scholarship from some international foundation that supported Open Source - whatever that was - and was working at the same time on a project related to basis of artificial intelligence (which was what that speech recognition thing was linked to) and a theoretical dissertation regarding methods of software development. Which was where Charlie's knowledge of IT world ended, so he couldn't explain the link between the two.**  
**"All I know is that she's brilliant, Will. Also, does some very weird things with everyone's computers. Mine had been blocking connection to my scanner, but Lizzy spent an hour on it and managed to convince it to cooperate. And ever since she helped with our servers we've stopped having problems with customers complaining our webpage is not working."**  
**Of course, he couldn't discuss _computers_**   **with her. He was competent - in the limited range he needed for business purposes - but no challenge to her. She knew next to nothing about real estate or business management, which he was deeply involved in, on both company and land ownership side.**  
**What could two educated, cultural British persons of differing genders talk about in a public setting?**  
  
####  
  
"...and I picked that book, thinking it must be hers, and offered it to her. She looked at it as if I was handing her a dead rat and asked - and you can probably imagine the smile and the raised eyebrows - 'Do I really look like I'm one to read  _poetry_?', you know, with utter revulsion and theatrical shudder."  
Rose snorted.  
"So I tried to get away from the topic, and she closed the little electronic toy she had - she was apparently testing a new Palm model, just out on the market - and proceeded to trash my stereotypes about female tastes in literature. Finally, she admitted she liked romances - but 'properly written, none of that Harlequin Medical rubbish' - and conceded she couldn't stand war novels. Other than that, I felt completely chastised for my assumptions and happy to find a topic from which we could start  _something_."  
"Well, she does like  _some_  romances. I had a look at her bookshelves once or twice."  
"Snooping?" he smirked.  
"Just checking" she shrugged. "And I found a few familiar things, you know. Actually..."  
  
#  
  
He ended up going to the office around noon. Luckily there was nothing unexpected waiting for him, so he dealt with the documents quickly and collected a package of papers to review at home. He needed time to prepare for the evening.  
_Serious, calm and honest, William. There is no other way._  
_But be gentle and **listen**  to her, you berk._  
  
#  
  
They were sitting around the dinner table, just like he had imagines sometimes.  
Just a week since Mina had got lost in Lambton.  
She was quite fine already - a little cough now and then, just out of pure reflex.  
Georgiana had excused herself from the table, saying something about essays waiting for correction.  
Mrs Reynolds had disappeared to her room after he had promised her they'd clean up after themselves.  
The table was quiet, as they sat, all four, eating and watching each other.  
Mina and Rose were making faces and he started to suspect they were actually conspiring.  
Of course they were bloody conspiring. The whole situation was caused by them conspiring. Well, not the  _whole situation_ , just the current episode of that fifteen-year long soap opera. With him as the bloody main male lead, broody, stiff and upperclass. Thank God he never used any product to slick down his hair, or it would have been a  _telenovela_  rather than an honest British soap. For some absurd reason, it gave him some relief.  
Elizabeth's blood-red peasant blouse made her hair look redder than usual, like the fire in the fireplace.  
He couldn't really taste the food he was eating. It might as well have been cardboard - and Mrs R was talented enough to make cardboard edible, too.  
Elizabeth was pushing the food around her plate.  
Elizabeth was blinking at her plate.  
_Uh oh._  
"I was thinking" he began quietly. "Rose? Mina? Are you done?"  
Two pairs of golden eyes snapped up to him somewhat... guiltily?  
"Yeah."  
Rose only nodded.  
"You can go, I think" he nodded towards the door. "And if the movie is quiet enough, I won't be checking on you... unless I hear screaming. And it better not be that abomination with the crystal skull, are we clear?"  
Rose's poker face was nearly perfect, but Mina's blush betrayed their plans immediately.  
He sighed.  
"Find something else."  
Rose's poker face turned to calculating and she shot Mina a glance.  
"OK" the younger shrugged. "We'll find something else."  
_Mhm._  
"Not Batman, if you please, Mina" Elizabeth said softly. Very softly.  
" _MOM._ "  
Elizabeth sighed.  
"Captain America will be fine. Just turn the volume down."  
"But I wanted..."  
"Chris Evans" Elizabeth speared a piece of potato with her fork. "Shirt off."  
"Liz..."  
She shot him a glance.  
"Take it or leave it. It's either the Cap or your choice of Disney. Rose hasn't seen Moana yet, right?"  
"OK, OK" Mina raised a hand. "We'll take the Cap."  
The door thumped slightly as they shut it and he saw Elizabeth slump a little in her seat.  
"Liz...? What just..."  
"They will focus on Chris Evan's chest and forget whatever it is that they are trying to cook up" she explained with a smirk. "Sorry to be brutal, Will, but they  _are_  fourteen. I've seen Batman when I was twelve and that was much worse. Even if you count in Red Skull. Also, Mina had already seen it."  
"Fine. I... I haven't seen it, so I'm trusting you on this one."  
She glanced at him and then back at her plate. She was blinking again.  
"Now, Liz... We have to talk about this at some point."  
"We've talked about it a lot" she frowned. "I think... we know what happened, right?"  
"Liz, I... I don't mean what had happened. I mean we need to talk about what  _will_  happen."  
She let the fork go with a clatter.  
"Yes. I suppose we should."  
He saw her eyes, finally, looking at him. Straight. Wide open. Irises blown wide with apprehension.  
He knew how to help with  _that_.  
"Liz, I think we can agree on some points, right? And work from there...?"  
She nodded jerkily.  
"We messed up. Both of us."  
A nod.  
"Aunt Catherine is completely crazy and Anne is on the way to the same state."  
"I suppose so."  
"We're now free of them."  
A nod.  
"We can talk... we can agree to do what is the best for the girls."  
Another nod, and a look away.  
"Please... please tell me if you feel differently, but I think they should not be separated."  
A micro nod.  
"And they need to be properly taken care of."  
She even smiled, just a bit.  
"And, Liz, I want to... I want to provide them with everything they need. A place where they can live together - adequate space and so on. And a school where both of them would feel safe. Mina isn't happy at her current school, am I correct?"  
He watched as she fiddled with the napkin.  
"It was supposed to be a good place, academically speaking" she said finally. "I was planning to transfer her the moment I found something adequate, in a reasonable distance."  
"You know I can cover any costs of the change, and help to organise everything" he reached out with an open palm. "I'd rather not have her stay in that place any longer. Rose told me some pretty awful stories about it..."  
She nodded slowly.  
"That would be... I could accept it, I suppose" she grinned weakly. "For the girls' sake."  
"For their sake, yes."  
She drained her cup and stared at her almost full plate some more.  
"I'm afraid I'm not doing Mrs Reynolds justice today" she said sadly. "But I can't eat. I think the way I slept for the last week had thrown my clock off balance."  
"We can put it in the fridge as it is" he quickly adapted to the changed topic. "And if you get hungry when you're working, there is a microwave oven in the kitchen. We do get some luxuries of the current century, even in this house."  
They exchanged weak grins at his attempt at a joke, and carried the leftovers to the kitchen. She wrapped up their plates - William's equally full - and placed them next to each other in the fridge. Slowly and quietly they filled in the dishwasher, stored any leftovers and wiped down the table and the surfaces in the kitchen.  
He saw her leaning heavily on the tabletop near the range, her shoulders slowly and painfully rolling backwards and forwards, in clear attempt at relieving the tension.  
"Liz, let's go upstairs, hm? Nothing more to do here, and you have to get some sleep, if you... If you plan to leave tomorrow" he finished heavily. "I'd rather not have you driving again on the last dregs of your energy."  
_Or, better, allow me to drive you, if you have to leave at all. Or at least let Brian. And take my car, instead of that matchbox car..._  
"Right" she nodded, squeezing her neck with a grimace. "I'll need it, definitely. I don't think I can write anything today, anyway."  
They climbed the stairs slowly, each step bringing them closer and closer to the end of that week.  
"Seven days" he said, feeling as if someone had put a tight band around his chest, preventing him from breathing in properly. "We've gone... so far."  
_And yet not far enough._  
"Seven days" she nodded, not looking up at him. "It feels like a year already."  
He stopped, letting her take a few steps forward before she noticed his absence and turned back to look at him.  
"Liz?" he looked up at  _her_. It wasn't often that he could put himself in such a position, so he was willing to make use of the chance to catch her eyes and finally have her look  _down_ at him. When he had her finally watching him, he slowly raised his hand and traced a line down her cheek, pushing an errant strand of her hair behind her ear. "Remember. You don't have to do it by yourself anymore. You don't  _have to_."  
She blinked, very quickly, and sighed. But instead of turning away, she nuzzled his palm with her cheek.  
"I will try to let go, just a bit" she said reluctantly. "I'll have to learn to, I suppose."  
"For their good."  
"For their good."  
He wasn't going to ask for more, not right now. The good of the girls was a good basis on which to build more.  
Speaking of building, he had to review the house plans...  
Elizabeth sighed and straightened with visible effort. His hand felt colder in the place where she wasn't touching him anymore.  
"Sleep" he said again. "You need to rest before driving."  
"Goodnight, William. I suppose I should start... noon-ish. To be in London at a reasonable hour."  
"Let me know when you arrive."  
She nodded with a half-smile.  
"Thank you, Will. For helping..."  
"They are my kids, too. How could I  _not_  help...?"  
She stood there, looking too tired to talk properly.  
"Yes" she finally managed and smiled, a bit weakly. Then she raised her hand and squeezed his fingers, before turning around and disappearing in her room.  
  
####  
  
He remembered the first time he held her hand in vivid detail. They were discussing the way that various fantasy worlds were still just Earth anyway and how rarely there was an author who would dare to free themselves from the Europo-centric standards, like Ursula Le Guin. Elizabeth was gesticulating, holding a volume of stories that was a size and mass of a brick, and it wobbled as she used it to underline some point.  
**He caught the book and slowly liberated it from her hand, putting it safely away on a window ledge near them and then, somehow, kept holding that hand and watching her face as her argument suddenly came to a halt as she seemed to lose her train of thought.**  
**"I concede" he brought her hand up and finally - _finally!_**   **\- pressed a small kiss to the tanned knuckles. "She is a particularly unique writer. And I _will_**   **read it. I promise. Now, would you consider it a good moment to eat something? I am starving, and I haven't seen you eat anything yet, and we've been here for" he checked his watch "three hours. By any standard, it's time to at least have tea."**  
He could replay the scene at will, with all the changes in her exp ****ression, from argumentative, to surprised, to blank, to confused, to suspicious. Of course she was suspicious, offering food at a larger gathering - thankfully, more social than business, this time - and offering to accompany her might mean some kind of declaration.  
He had wanted to be as clear as he could with his intentions. She had to see them. He was laying his soul bare in front of her, wasn't he? Being attentive, being around, being  _there_ all the time. And still, she looked at him in such a surprise when he initiated any kind of physical contact.  
Well, yeah. That. Physical contact.  
He could also remember the first - and the last - time he touched her shoulder from behind her without announcing his presence first.  
**She was sitting at the kitchen table, hair unusually tamed in one plait, one that started at the top of her head. A pair of huge, electric pink headphones isolated her from the world as she typed something, clicked and then waited. She looked tense and he saw an opening here - he could suggest... But before he finished that thought, his hand descended on her upper arm and the situation exploded violently.**  
**Elizabeth jerked the arm away, striking the mug of tea that was standing next to her laptop - luckily, away from the machine. Her whole body went the other way, shrinking away from his hand and she fell off the chair she had been sitting on, while the chair itself, falling the other way, collided with his legs.**  
**"Ouf" he managed to say before he noticed her catching the air with difficulty.**  
**_Hyperventilating_** **.**  
**He rubbed the place where the chair had hit him, moved the piece of furniture aside and crouched on the floor next to her.**  
**"Hey, Liz" he reached out to her, but stopped the movement before he touched her. "Hey, it's just me. Jane let me in, Charles it taking her shopping."**  
**She pressed her eyes with her fingers and nodded, still not looking up.**  
**"A moment" she rasped. "I'm sorry, William. You startled me. It's..." she inhaled and held the air for a moment. "Sorry."**  
**"No, my fault. I thought you had heard me."**  
**She tapped the headphones.**  
**"Noise-cancelling. I was listening to a text to speech app, looking for issues with nonstandard vocabulary."**  
**"I thought you were working on speech recognition?" he frowned and she nodded.**  
**"Yes, but it's all a part of the same projects. Anyway. Better now. Can you click the kettle on?"**  
**He busied himself with the tea - loose leaf Earl Grey, a bit of sugar for him, a lot of milk for her - and watched her from the corner of his eye as she dusted herself off, picked up the mug, wiped the puddle of cold tea and checked the laptop and the headphones. Then she looked at the chair, set it at the table and moved her whole working setup around the table, to the bench by the wall. This brought her to a position where she was sitting with her back to the said wall, and not to the middle of the room.**  
**_Noted._**  
**There were occasions after that when he had to forcibly remind himself to first go around her - keeping a reasonable distance of at least two steps - and only then initiate contact. He saw her stiffen up in a restaurant when a waiter reached around her to pour water or place the plate, in public places, when the next person in line was much taller than her - not a challenge...**  
**If he was going to be anything, he was going to be that one person that paid attention to _that_.**  
  
####  
  
So, Elizabeth agreed. The solution to point four was perfectly obvious, when he thought of it. Since they both agreed that the children should not be separated - and that they'd be much better off with Elizabeth, who could obviously provide much better level of care than he could - as long as his money was framed as "for the good of the girls" and supported by the fact that she'd be having now both of them, she would be willing to accept it.  
He could do even better. He had a pretty good idea how much time it took people to hunt for a new flat.  
_Ha!_  
He pulled out the laptop and started clicking through real estate ads. Three bedroom - or four? No, three. Or two, if one was big enough for both girls...  
First he limited himself to their current neighbourhood, but pretty soon the markers of reasonably looking, pre-furnished, three-bedroom in a quiet neighbourhood were all around the city. After all, the thing keeping her in that place was mostly the fact that her parents owned it, so there should be no obstacle to them moving somewhere else. The only issue would be Mina's school, but since she wouldn't be going back to that place - or not for long - that wasn't really a problem.  
_Ha._  
For every location that made its way to his top ten choices, he started a check on schools in the vicinity.  
Once he was done, all Lizzy would have to do would be to go and check the flats. For each of them, he would provide her the suggested schools - two to three per area, no more.  
But, knowing Elizabeth, she would agree to the first flat that seemed livable, even if she didn't like it for some reason. Who was in London who could help... He flipped through the contacts on his phone. There was one person who could assist Elizabeth without being too obnoxious about it. He would have gladly gone himself, but that seemed a bit over the top. He was  _not_  going to control her choices, was he? It would be better to ask Charles to help. Much less intrusive.  
  
####  
  
So, William agreed.  
She leaned on the door, listening to his steps as he walked to his room and closed the door with a resounding "snap" of the lock.  
Good. It was good. It hurt, but it was the best solution possible. She had to admit he was the better choice to take care of them, even if it rankled. Pemberley was perfect as a place to grow up in, and she didn't even have to  _ask_  him. She had all that speech planned, about Mina's health and need to stability and appropriate environment and school. And William had said it all for her. She was quite ready to weep in relief.  
_Better not, or tomorrow you'll be driving with a mother of all migraines._  
Two more things to do - talk to the cleaning team and to the girls. Well, Mina first.  
And then, God, Monday. Monday the monster.  
Meeting at the customer's office at ten and then -- she winced -- then the school. She had absolutely no idea what kind of procedures were needed to transfer a student, but there had to be something obvious to follow in case of a family moving. Here it would be just the student moving, but the same rules would apply, probably.  
She would collect all the needed documents, and the custody agreement. They'd have to write the new version together, but that could wait, a bit. She would need to find the certificates of posting for the last packages, too, so that William could follow up on that.  
She winced just a bit at the thought of...  
_No. You have to focus. Rose will have her Frozen snowflake this year._  
_Stop it._  
  
####  
  
"Whatever it was, they didn't like, completely make up."  
"Why?"  
"Obvious. They didn't  _kiss_. If they made up, they'd kiss."  
"So?"  
"So it means they are still not staying together. So it means they are splitting us."  
"No way."  
"Absolutely. Whatever they think, I'm not going anywhere without you."  
Rose curled up on her bed and looked at Mina who was still standing at the door.  
"We need a plan" she said simply.  
"And I know who will help us" Mina smiled widely.  
"We just need to get up early, before they wake."  
"Half five should be enough."  
"Yep."  
  
####  
  
Elizabeth was up early, but apparently the girls had managed to wake up even earlier than her. Their room was empty, beds reasonably tidy and things carefully stored away. She sniffed slightly, looking at the evidence of the two of them living in the small space.  
_They were up to something, definitely._  
She didn't have time to track down her daughters at that very moment, as the door downstairs opened and a group of cheery-sounding young people was invading the main hall.  
Soon one team was outside, together with estate workers collecting all the fallen fruit and bringing it to the storage sheds in huge plastic containers, another was sorting out the worst of it and carting the rejected ones to the compost heap and another was upstairs, waiting for orders. She quickly directed them to the two rooms and threw open the door.  
"Anything that looks like an actual thing, pack. Rubbish, out to the shed, you know where, I suppose?"  
"Yes, Miss" one of the lanky boys nodded towards the back of the house.  
"Very well. Important part - if you find anything that looks like a document, papers, ID, whatever official - put it in this container" she raised a plastic bin "and, once all done, leave it next to the study door. Clear?"  
"Clear!"  
She left them to it, not wishing to stay in these rooms a second longer than needed and went to her own room to pack.  
"Miss!"  
A cry from Anne's room brought her running.  
"What is it? What happened?"  
The room was mostly stripped of all contents, but one girl was using her flashlight to check behind Anne's bed and she was making the most excited noises.  
"It's a bag... Like a plastic bag, and there are leaves inside!?"  
  
#  
  
Police had come and gone - the rather kind Sergeant William had introduced as Hanners collecting the dusty bag, making a lot of photographs and asking the cleaning team numerous questions - and now the rooms were bare, windows open wide and letting in as much fresh air as was possible.  
  
#  
  
The youngsters were now washing the floor in the main hall, or maybe the stairs already. Anyway, it was time to talk to Mina.  
"I've discussed it with your father, kitten. And he actually proposed you staying here himself, so..." she smiled and shrugged. "I will pack your things and bring them the next weekend. Rose didn't take much, mainly one outfit for you to wear on the way back. You will make do for now with her things, I hope. Now, you will be good for your father and - with aunt Catherine and Anne gone - everything should be fine, right?"  
Mina nodded, her face hidden in Elizabeth's jumper.  
"We've spoken about it, right? You'll be much better off here than in London, kitten. And I'll come here every weekend and we'll spend these two days together. Or I will ask your father to bring you two to London, so we can show Rose - this time properly - all the interesting things we know. I tried, but two days was definitely not enough."  
"M-hm."  
"You know I love you, ducky" she said, sighing. "But you need more time with your father, and there's no time like present. And you know London at this time of the year isn't the best for you. You'd be sick for half of the time, and here you will have a chance to maybe, just maybe,  _not_  be sick at all. The air is so much better. And you said yourself that Rose's school is much nicer than yours. It will be much easier now that you've already met all everyone, and with Rose in at least some of the same classes, it won't be that hard to adjust to being  _you_  yourself there."  
"I like it here" Mina said finally. "The gardens are just great and Rose could show me all the things I didn't find yet. And maybe she could teach me to ride a horse?"  
"If... if you wish" Elizabeth agreed cautiously. "And if your father agrees. He rides very well, so you could take horse trips around the property, once you're good enough."  
"Mom?"  
"Hm?"  
"What about Christmas?"  
Elizabeth froze.  
"I... I will talk to your father about it. We'll work something out."  
  
####  
  
Saturday morning started early, with the cleaning crew invading first the gardens and then the rooms left full of various random objects by Anne and aunt Catherine. He heard Elizabeth explain to them the simple rule - whatever seemed to be an actual  _thing_ , they were to pack in the boxes and transport to the attic; any documents were to be placed in a separate container and left by the study door and whatever seemed to be actual full blown rubbish, well. Soon the corridor filled with people carrying boxes - upstairs, bedding - to the laundry and trash - to the small shed beside the kitchen door. There were single pieces of cutlery found and one particularly enterprising girl had uncovered a rather suspiciously-looking bag of  _something_  behind what used to be Anne's bed.  
"Don't touch it" he head Elizabeth say and soon he was calling Sergeant Hanners.  
  
####  
  
After the police had left, he found his eldest - of two, but it was still fun to call her that in his thoughts - behind the stables, watching the horses playing on the paddock.  
"I've discussed the whole thing with your mother" he said plainly.  
"Dad?"  
"I'm guessing you would be fine with staying with her for a prolonged time" he stared ahead, trying not to pressure her into anything.  
"Yes...?"  
"She agreed - well, provisionally - to take both of you to London. With certain conditions, of course."  
"New school."  
"And a new, bigger flat. And I suppose with both of you staying with her, my financial contribution will not be rejected."  
"So you'll pay for the flat."  
"Well, we have still to sit and hash out the details, but that would be my plan, yes."  
"Hm" Rose nodded slowly. "And she agreed?"  
"Yes. I explained that I'm ready to provide whatever material assistance is needed for the new place and new school - for whatever you two would need. And she accepted that as a good enough reason."  
"You will come?"  
"Every weekend, imp. And I'll see what we can do about Christmas. Maybe I could come on the twenty-third? And then, well. See what the big city looks like when properly decorated?"  
"OK" she kicked a small stone. "It will be... It will be good to spend more time with Mom. But only as long as you come often."  
His daughter definitely  _wanted_  to go to London and stay with her mother. Now he saw that she also most definitely  _needed_  it. He managed to bring up a girl who apparently had more reserve than any grown-up should possess and he hoped prolonged exposure to her mother might actually cure her of that. It was all fine when an adult and a professional, like him, presented a stoic face to everyone, but Rose should have been  _enthusiastic_. Maybe lack of Lizzy in her life was detrimental to this part of her socialisation? He had had that last month with Mina to show him how a child of that age behaved when not trying to play a grown-up every second of her life. Even with Mina pretending to be Rose to the best of her abilities, it still leaked - he didn’t see it at the time, but, again, comparing the two of them consciously now...  
"Go and pack" he said finally. "Just one bag, I will bring everything else next weekend."  
"Thank you, Dad" she stood up and leaned in to peck him on the cheek. "I... I really, really liked living with Mom. But could you, maybe, you know, come during the week sometime? Just in case Mom can't transfer Mina to another school, maybe you could scare some of these old cats..."  
"I will talk to your mother about it, darling. I certainly hope so. And during some weekends, I could take you and Mina for a trip somewhere, just to get to know both of you, at the same time. And yes, I think I should show up at the school from time to time. Just until we find a better place for you two."  
She frowned, looking at the paddock again.  
"And what about us, visiting here? Mina said she'd be OK with learning to ride, if I could show her everything, and I suppose..."  
"I'll talk to your mother about it, don't worry. Now, run upstairs and pack. Reasonably!"  
  
#  
  
As Rose ran towards the house, he leaned on the fence, watching the horses morosely.  
_At least they will be happy._  
Not that it was much better than his dream, of course. But it was still the best outcome possible. Girls would be with Elizabeth, he would come visit as often as possible… And they communicated! A full, proper conversation about the future. Actually  _resolving_  issues.  
He sighed with relief. It was a good sign for them, wasn’t it?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, yeah. They talked. COMMUNICATED even.  
> *snort*
> 
> ####
> 
> * what Lizzy is singing here is a [song from "Grafin Maritza"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7HuYCg5VswQ)  
> * the song she is singing in previous chapter is [also from the same operetta](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zmT9sLsKCA)  
> (both are, of course, duets)  
> * the part from previous chapter is, in fact, the male character declaring that the lady is the prettiest fairy between Debrecen and Balaton.


	14. Cause I will hold your hand

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> That flashback chapter that I wasn't planning.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope the placement in the general timeline of the story will be self-explanatory, but if you have any doubts, ask, of course :)
> 
> Next chapter: Back to our regular programming.
> 
> This chapter is the outcome of discussions on AHA, where I post this story too. Hope everyone likes these small looks into the past of the characters :)

## A most beloved sister ##

 

The flat was dark when she hauled the bags of shopping into the kitchen. There was no sign of her sister - neither the dirty mug in the sink nor the cold tea in the other had been touched since the morning. There was also no trace of any kind of dinner having been cooked, which was a bit troubling.

"Lizzy? Are you there?"

There was dim light coming from the smaller of two bedrooms - more like an alcove in the wall than a proper room - but there was no answer forthcoming.

She placed the milk, the bags of frozen vegetables and the fresh produce in their allotted places in their tiny kitchen. She wanted to avoid it, but her anxiety pushed her to finally invade Elizabeth's privacy.

And there she was, in all her tousled, jersey-swathed glory, lying flat on her face on her bed, one slim foot outstretched, the other pulled up under her.

"Lizzy, what's going on? Have you eaten anything?"

Elizabeth groaned.

"Liz, you have to eat if you are supposed to write something. Can't do creative work if you don't fuel your brain."

"No difference" her sister mumbled finally. "I'm useless anyway."

"Elizabeth, what is this all about?"

Jane's "teacher voice" was lauded in their home neighbourhood as a power to be reckoned with. She could subdue even the worst little miscreants and control noisy toddlers in any numbers tried. That is, up to and including the panic at the local Little Miss contest, when someone's pet Chihuahua had got loose and bit one of the small contestants on her seat.

The same voice had next to no impact on her closest sibling. The one that needed her intervention the most. The one that tore herself apart trying to satisfy conflicting needs of everyone around her.

Still, as she waited, she noticed more and more, which gave her clues about the source of Elizabeth's distress.

The laptop closed and off.

A stack of papers, normally stored in a box under the bed, spread in a chaotic manner around the laptop.

Lizzy's favourite notebook, half under the wardrobe.

"Elizabeth, have you been throwing your things?"

"So what, if I have?" came a rebellious - and strangely trembling answer.

"Did you throw your beloved laptop?"

"I'm depressed, not stupid."

"Good to know" Jane allowed this without further comment. "Now, are you willing to tell me what precipitated this... act of chaos, or do I have to torture you with twenty questions? Only I don't stop at twenty, you know."

"Leave it, Jane."

"No."

"Jane."

"No."

" _Jaaaneeeeyyy..._ "

Elizabeth was whining. Which meant the victory was near.

"Did you try to write your thesis today?"

"Yes" came a grumbled answer.

"Did you manage to write your planned five pages?"

"Yes..."

"Did you try to work on your grant project today?"

"Yes!"

"Did something go wrong in the project?"

Elizabeth sat up and scowled at her.

"Every. Bloody. Thing" she spat out and threw herself backwards, rather theatrically. "Including, but not limited to, total idiocy of the main specification writer, absolute stupidity of the main programmer, terrifying mental limitation of the chief tester and, last but not least, someone having set up the bug tracking program in such a way that it stopped adding timestamps to bug updates."

Jane blinked and sat down next to her sister.

"I thought you were working on this alone..."

Elizabeth's single visible eye glared at her from under the wild cloud of hair.

"Yes."

"So how come you have a writer, a programmer... Oh. I see."

Elizabeth shrugged.

"What could go wrong, did. Actually, more. The university e-mail server is down, and apparently, the building with the servers had been flooded. I accept responsibility for my own failures, but that, that is just aggravating."

"Don't you think you're being a tad dramatic? It's not the last day before the deadline - you have two years to work on it!"

"But I want to be  _done_ . I want to start on my PhD. I want to..."

"To show Papa girls can do it?"

"Papa knows perfectly well girls can do it. There are jerks in my group that are half his age, but behave as if they were  _twice_ . No idea how they managed to get that far without meeting a woman who would be competent at the keyboard, but apparently my skills make me unnatural and a good target for ridicule."

"Maybe they feel insecure? You know how people react when you do that little trick where you type on the keyboard and then you look up at the person who is talking to you and you  _keep typing_ as fast as you can? That freaks  _me_ out and I've known you your entire life."

"The last time someone commented on the speed with which I type, I told them that it's because girls' fingers aren't habitually curled up due to excessive wanking. Somehow that wasn't as generally appreciated by the rest of the group as their jokes about programming the washing machine, or the one about complicated electrical devices with three speed settings. Or the one about using excel to track my cycle. Wonder why."

Jane finally snorted.

"Yes, definitely insecure. Come on, Lizzy. Guys make jokes about female cycle only when they can't find anything else to throw at you. They can't say you're bad at math, because even despite that hiccup last year, your grades are fine. They can't say you aren't a good programmer, because you are the only one who had finished the Turbo Pascal assignment in two weeks instead of the whole semester. And not only you manage to wipe the floor with them in the main subjects, you're annoyingly talented - and I say this as your greatest fan, you  _are_ annoying with the amount of stuff you can do - you sing, you play the piano and you make things."

"Well, maybe I should have gone to a sewing school. Or something. At least I would have had tangible effects of my work. I could feel accomplished at the end of the day - that many vests and that many shirts. Or I could sew bras. Bras are interesting. And I could finally sew my own."

"And you'd have gone  _mad_ in three months of sitting in front of the machine. You can never keep at one craft too long because you grow bored of it and need to switch. Imagine, if you were actually  _working_ as a tailor, you wouldn't be able to say that now you want to crochet for another half year."

Elizabeth groaned.

"But it would have been  _useful_ . Not like... like this" she kicked her bare foot towards the heap of papers. "Nobody will ever see the actual outcome of what I'm going. It's not something I can print out, or run directly, or... or anything."

"Because you're writing the brain. The brain is never visible."

"Yeah" Elizabeth shuffled closer to her and sighed. "And that's why I'll always be the back office girl. I don't write flashy interfaces, I suck at graphics, but I can work out logic and write code. Well, or so I thought. I've been stuck on this... this crap for three days. I can't... Everyone will see that I'm absolutely  _hopeless_ ..."

She pulled her unresisting sister closer and placed Elizabeth's head in her lap.

"Now, you listen to me, Miss Lizzy" she said sternly, running her fingers through the riot of waves. "You know what you're suffering from and I know."

"Mmmph."

Jane picked up a discarded wide-toothed comb and started pulling it through Elizabeth's hair.

"Repeat after me. Impostor syndrome."

"...stor syndrome."

"IMPOSTOR SYNDROME."

"Impostor syndrome."

"What does it mean?"

"That person who is qualified to do something anyway thinks she is a fraud."

"And you are qualified, Lizzy."

"mnot."

"You are. Usenix doesn't give grants to every stupid kid from the street."

Elizabeth hid her face in Jane's skirt, giving her the chance to comb through another part of the tangled chaos.

"You are competent, skilled and smart. You just need to... to do something else for a moment. If your computer froze and didn't do anything for a while, what would you do?"

Elizabeth mumbled something indistinct.

"Restart it, right? So I think you need a restart. Away from your computer, away from your papers. Charlie is having some event today, and you will come with me. You can wear that linen set you've made last year, it will be just fine. I will comb this out, then you pop into the shower and this time, please  _do_ use that conditioner I've bought, and then Charlie will pick us up. Now, move, you lump of laziness. Party."

"But, Jane... This will be, like, business. I mean, these people will be all serious and... and I'm just a stupid student."

" _You_ are not stupid. You're intelligent, educated and you can easily talk to people about a variety of subjects. Just, you know. Relax and find a topic you know a lot about, and you will charm these suits in no time."

"I don't want to charm anyone. I..."

"Shower. Now. Or are you working on joining the ranks of computer engineers by trying to emulate the stereotype of an unwashed basement dweller from American TV?"

One golden eye glared at her angrily as Elizabeth curled up in her lap for a moment. Jane waited.

And waited.

"Fiiiiiine. But don't expect me to be too social. I have no idea what to talk about to a bunch of business degree holders."

"You talk to Charlie. That should be similar" she patted Lizzy's cheek.

"But Charlie is different. He loves you, so he was automatically predisposed to like me. If you said you were bringing a wild boar, he would have been predisposed to accept the boar, simply because  _you_ brought it."

"Up, you boar. Shower! And be social, as much as you can. Oh, and, Lizzy?"

Elizabeth yawned and turned back to her, picking up a discarded towel.

"Charlie says his best friend is going to be there today. You know. William."

 

####

 

## The balm of sisterly consolation ##

 

"Lizzy? What's wrong?"

Elizabeth sounded as if she was barely stopping herself from crying.  _Or_ , Mary considered for a moment,  _biting someone's head off_ . Elizabeth angry was sometimes just a step away from Elizabeth crying and depressive, and that was a step away from Elizabeth nursing a humongous migraine and attacking anyone who came near her.

"Mary... Do you still have that spare bed in your room?"

 

#

 

Three days. Three days at home was all it took to reduce Elizabeth from rebellious but optimistic about her future to angry and hurting. Three days of being constantly harangued by their mother and treated with cold silence by their father - each of them for a completely different reason, to make it harder for the good child to find a way to satisfy them both.

Mary had arrived, fished Elizabeth's second set of car keys from the bottom of her purse and very carefully moved the car to the front of the house. She didn't like driving, being even less of a fan of London traffic than Lizzy, but she could repark it if needed. Like right now.

Then she marched up the stairs, past the kitchen where her mother was now making noises of "stupid child, throwing away all that money, never mind the man, she should have stayed for the cash" on a loop, past the main room where Lydia was trying to make Adele stand up, up to their old bedrooms. And there was Elizabeth, packing the large bag she had left at their parents' house all these months ago, throwing together all her clothes, current and older, face red and eyes bloodshot.

Mina was sleeping quietly on Elizabeth's bed, so they moved in silence, combining the luggage into bigger, but fewer pieces.

"Thank you" Elizabeth whispered. "Mother is being... unreasonable."

"And, I suppose, father isn't helping."

Elizabeth shrugged.

"He's disappointed."

"He should be helping you, not freezing you out. Come on, most of the guys who make it to their engineering Masters aren't ready to actually live in real world, and you, you have a kid, you are actually a functioning grownup! And you had both the project  _and_ your thesis."

"Shh. Well, yes, but I have put my career in jeopardy, terrible, terrible thing. I have wrong priorities and I need to make up my mind what I want. Well, maybe I want  _both_ , so what?"

Mary patted her hand.

"You can. Now, let's go. I notified the dorm admin and they are OK with you living there with Mina, as long as you're a student. So, next three months at least."

"Three at  _most_ . I have to defend my thesis by the end of January, don't ask me why, even my advisor can't work it out. At least I've closed all the normal courses still up there, and professor Dunley was more than happy that he wouldn't have to go back to Derbyshire in the middle of the winter just to see me at my  _viva_ . He did  _everything_ for me, transferring my credits from there to his current college, making the chair of his department add me to the list even though I'm not going to be showing up for any courses and they are happy to just accept the basic fee, so I'll have more cash on my hands in three months. To tell you the truth, he must have something on the dean. I wasn't sure it was even possible to do this in less than a week."

She zipped the bag up and straightened.

"I've already put the mobile crib in the car yesterday" she said with a grin. "And my last shopping I just left there, so I have a lot of everything. Just need to make sure I have enough money for the next two months until all the costs are resolved between the universities."

"Ah, that" Mary shouldered one of the bags. "How do you feel about installing antiviruses and diagnosing Windows issues?"

Elizabeth looked at her in question.

"Not happy, but I can do it. Why?"

"My dear, dear sister. There is a whole floor of history and philosophy students who will gladly queue at your door if you agree to apply your magic to their poor, poor laptops. Half of them had already lost parts of their thesis, some of them actually  _print_ everything just in case their hard drives get eaten by an accident with something or other. And they will pay real money for it to be done, especially if they know you're not going to install something even nastier on their machines. Last year there was a group of blokes from the computer science department who advertised laptop servicing, but they were actually installing some very weird things on people's systems, and all the 'artsy' and soft part of the student population is leery now. If I vouch for you, and if you live with me for some time, they will trust you."

"And I can do several of these at once, they don't have to queue, actually" Elizabeth added happily. "That will be grand. And, in case someone needs something more complicated, like, I don't know, help with Excel or whatever, I can do it, too. I'll anyway write during the night, when Mina's asleep, so I can service some computers at the same time, as long as we can power them safely. And if someone needs training, well, up to them."

"OK, now, take her to the car and I'll take the bags. And let's get this over with before Dad comes home, or it will get  _nasty_ ."

 

#

 

"Oi, Mary! You getting a new roommate at least?"

"Nah, I went out and found one on my own. This is my sister, Elizabeth" Mary pointed out to Lizzy, who was right now trying to pick up Mina in her car seat and not drop the diaper bag.

"With a kid?"

"She's got the permission, and we're at the end of the corridor anyway. Let the other computer idiots know that there is an actual computer science major on the floor and she's willing to service their crappy machines from tomorrow, including..." she shot Elizabeth a look.

"Including, if needed, training in Word, Excel and statistics, albeit the last one with certain disgust" her sister added, finally giving up on the diaper bag. "In exchange I accept money, babysitting hours and anything else you can offer in sufficient quantities, including shopping runs."

"And experimental therapy."

"Mary!"

"You will accept the damned yoga lesson if I have to sit on you" she threatened. "Lila, could you open my door? We have to get the little one settled down before she has a nervous breakdown."

"Mina is asleep" Elizabeth hissed.

"I was talking about  _you_ ."

 

#

 

"That. Was. Brilliant" a wide-eyed sociology student accepted a floppy with his "lost" essay. "It's like, a week of my work. I can't thank you enough."

"That's fine" Elizabeth yawned. "Glad to be of use, sorry it took so long, but Mina really, really wanted to be walked around the whole block yesterday and now I can barely move" she rolled her shoulders and smiled weakly. "That was just a small one, but could I bother you for a shopping run in exchange? I just need basic stuff, like bread and so on..."

"I can do you one better" the guy smiled. "I will do the shopping, no problem. But my girlfriend, she's a fully-trained masseuse. She's been listening to me moaning about this for the last three days, and if I tell her you were the one who had managed to get it back, I'm sure she will be happy to help you with these shoulders. She does mine after I sit over my papers too long, and I can tell you, there  _is_ a difference."

Elizabeth nodded slowly, trying not to move too quickly.

"Sure, fine. Just get me these" she handed him the list and a few notes. "And if your girl can help me to stand straight, I'll pay  _her_ ."

Mary snickered behind her hand, but Elizabeth looked rather willing to try even that. Hell, if the girl was that good, Mary would pay her just to see Elizabeth smile again. It was Elizabeth's birthday in two weeks and she deserved a proper gift this year.

 

#

 

"Magic. Just... argh... effing magic."

Adrianna kneaded her stiffened muscles into obedience, with Mina standing in her crib and making happy noises whenever she heard Elizabeth swear.

"This child will learn stuff she's not supposed to learn yet" Mary said, leaning back on her bed.

"...argh, damn. Ouch."

"Ouchie!"

"Yes, ducky, ouchie. Mama has an ouchie because... arghh... she's been carrying you for two hours... when you couldn't sleep."

"Buy a good baby carrier" Adrianna attacked another section. "Or you will hurt yourself. Now, this, does this hurt?"

Elizabeth yelled something very vulgar, which made Mina clap her hands in happiness.

"I'm guessing it does. OK, so, now, let's try here..."

 

#

 

"It's not a virus. It's a backdoor" Elizabeth grimaced. "Someone has been using your computer to do nasty stuff on the net."

The guy in front of her turned his laptop around and had a long, searching look at the back of it.

"Which one is it?" he asked decisively.

"What?"

"The backdoor. Which one of these is it" he pointed to the row of ports. "So I can plug it somehow. Nobody is using my laptop but me!"

"Let me explain it again."

Elizabeth sighed. This one would be hauling milk and water. 

 

#

 

"Have you taken your meds?"

This was something Mary had to enforce. Elizabeth was getting better, but to actually progress properly she needed to actually the therapist's orders. In the first week, she had hauled her supposedly older sister by her collar to the nearest recommended shrink and nagged her into talking to the nice woman.

The nice woman was, in fact, very sympathetic and although she had a bit of a fixation on the idea that Lizzy should seek reconciliation with William, she didn't focus solely on that point. She accepted the fact that picking up contact broken in such a dramatic way may be a challenge and so provided other means of relief, starting from a session of guiding imagery for both of them - so that Mary could help Elizabeth later on - and ending with a carefully calculated dosage of anti-depressants and relaxants.

And they were helping. As long as Elizabeth was taking them, of course. And Mary didn't wish for a return of the depressed and guilt-ridden Lizzy, so, for their mutual good, she was ruthless in tracking the pills numbers.

Elizabeth looked up from the laptop she was torturing while her own project was recompiling (whatever that was) and smiled. Widely.

Oh, she had definitely taken them. Good.

"I'm taking Mina to the psychology girls in the afternoon, OK? They want to check how she reacts to various colour stimuli."

"Just make sure they don't stick her with electrodes, or something."

"Nah, just observation this time. Electrodes are next week."

"Next week is fine. As long as they don't shave her."

They giggled like crazies and Mina banged two blocks together, joining in.

 

#

 

"This will be the cleanest, safest and most secure floor, computer-wise, in the whole dorm" Mary watched as Elizabeth started yet another installation and turned back to her own keyboard. "They love you, apparently. There are news about a computer girl making rounds and every female who had ever got criticised by a computer major for having all her files on her desktop wants  _you_ to help her now."

"It keeps us stocked in milk and other heavy stuff. I started bartering with girls on the floor for tea and so on. Even got a haircut."

"Erm..."

"I didn't say it was a very good haircut, but it's what I can afford right now" Elizabeth was smiling at her and Mary had to agree, they couldn't be picky. But it was getting better. Elizabeth was getting better and, very quietly and somehow in the shadow, Mary was getting better, too.

Mina made three steps in Mary's direction and suddenly sat on her little, nappy-covered bum.

"Bah" she said in surprise.

"Yes, Mina, bah" Mary confirmed and gathered her niece in her arms. "There will be a lot of bah until you learn to walk properly."

"Bah!"

It would be nice one day to have one of these. The idea of bringing up a new mind, of shaping the way it sees the universe, of giving it the space to grow appealed to her. The only issue she found was that it usually involved a man's intervention to produce it.

For the time being, she could practise on Mina, who seemed quite willing to participate.

 

####

 

## Vanity and pride are different things ##

 

A public presentation.

She was going to  _die_ .

Some universities were merciful and made the vivas private, but no, here and now she had to present her work in front of general audience. Including her father. And whoever else would come.

She felt quite ready to throw up everything she had eaten in the previous two months.

"Now, Lizzy, have you eaten anything today?"

Mary's voice pulled her back to reality.

"Yes. A yogurt and some saltines" Elizabeth was shaking from both chill and nerves, so her answer came a bit clipped.

"Tea for you then. And don't you even protest. I have it here" she brandished a thermos flask. "Now, your cup, and drink. You'll be warmer and your stomach will settle."

"I can barely swallow anything" she whispered. "How can I talk to people? How can I actually defend that stupid thing?"

"It is  _not_ stupid. And the only people who are allowed to ask questions like you anyway. I've heard one of the examiners saying that it's the most interesting thing she had read in the last five years and that she is jealous of professor Dunley that he had managed to snag you."

"Mary!"

"And the other one said she wants to see you explain that SWOT analysis. And that he has some questions that pertain to the generalities of the model, rather than your specific work."

"Mary, you shouldn't... How did you hear this?"

"They were standing below the toilet window" Mary snorted. "Having a smoke, I suppose. Hey, they seemed a bit nervous, too."

Elizabeth breathed deeply.

"OK, how do I look? Too dressy? Too casual?"

Mary looked her up and down with a critical eye.

"Shoes low, that's good, less risk that you will trip. Everything clean. And that red scarf cries 'I'm an individual, look at me', which is good."

"I have to take it off" Elizabeth's hand fluttered up. "No way I'm shouting for attention like this!"

Mary's fingers stopped hers.

"I'll loosen it up for you, but don't remove it and don't  _play_ with it, no matter how much your fingers itch. It's nice. If you remove it, you will be just all the others. Remember, don't touch it. If you need to do something with your hands, stretch your fingers, one by one, but out of sight."

"I love you, Mary."

"Go and knock them flat. Jane is out there with Mina, and Kitty is helping her. I'll have all your things with me, so your task is only to answer the questions and be your smart self."

Elizabeth sighed and nodded.

 

#

 

The next two hours were -- when she later thought of it -- a long jumble of questions, her own trembling voice, whispers amongst the examiners and her nervous watching the door. Which never opened. There was no tall, dark figure among the audience, no second dark-haired child held up to see her mother, no pair of piercing blue eyes watching her from anywhere in the chamber.

As she detailed her approach to the SWOT analysis, her voice failed when she came to the point of "business opportunities" and she had to ask for more water before she could continue.

And finally it was done, and people were coming up to her to congratulate her, shake her hand, pat her shoulder or just have a look and smile. Everyone seemed to smile at her that day. Everyone that came, rather.

As slowly as she could, she went through the next steps - she took back sleeping Mina, hugged Jane and Mary, received a kiss from her father, collected her documents, got informed when and where she would be able to pick up her actual diploma and... nothing.

There was no William.

And no Rose.

 

#

 

"You will need a place to live now that you're no longer a student" her father remarked a bit absently. "And we have a flat - that one which your aunt Olivia owned before she moved to Spain - and we have just lost the two students who were renting it, due to a foreign exchange program, and there are no people interested in it at this time of the year."

"But, Dad" Elizabeth sighed. "I've only received a proposition for a minor job at the university, and that's not enough money..."

"As long as you can pay the costs, it will do" he said quickly. "It's better to keep it occupied than to let it stay empty, and it's close to the main campus."

"If you put it that way" she smiled wanly. "I think I... That will be fine. Thank you."

"Don't think of it. I'd much rather have you in one safe place than trying to find a better spot every three months, like some of my assistants do."

"And it will be much more stable for Mina" she added, watching her daughter intently stacking some bricks and Adele regarding her curiously.

"Well, that too, yes" her father confirmed quickly. "But my main objective is to have you safely placed in a nice walking distance from work. Nobody should be forced to use London public transport unless they absolutely  _must_ ."

"And when I pick up some smaller jobs - there are a lot of chances to do freelance programming, once I have time to advertise - I'll have money for something bigger" she mused. "That will work, Dad. Thanks."

 

#

 

She looked around the flat, marvelling at the way her meagre belongings were swallowed by the huge wardrobe and cupboards. The only object that actually took space was placed in the second bedroom - to-be-Mina's-bedroom - still safely in its linen cover.

Her "graduation gift".

Her very own electric piano.

"So that you can practise whenever you want" Mary said with a smile. "They keyboard is like in a normal piano, not like in one of these plastic monstrosities. It actually reacts to pressure properly. I  _tested_ it. And if you have a need to play in the middle of the night, well, that's what the headphones are for. No more 'shut it down, people want to sleep', no more renting the pianos at the centre at stupid rates, no more tuning."

"I happen to like tuning" Elizabeth smiled. "But I love  _this_ . Oh, this will be  _perfect_ . At least until Mina is mobile enough to pull it off the stand and on her own head, but I hope by that time I'll have moved somewhere else and I'll have appropriate space for it. And once she starts learning, I suppose I'll have to use the music centre pianos anyway, to make sure she knows the instrument itself, before using this one."

"You are a traditionalist at heart, Lizzy" Jane hugged her as she set the last box down and rubbed her own back. "Is this all? How do you live with so little?"

Elizabeth shrugged uncomfortably.

"I didn't have time to pack really" she managed not to tear up. "So, most of my stuff... And you, Mrs Bingley, were not supposed to pick up anything."

"OK, so we'll need to organise things for Mina" Jane sidestepped the topic deftly. "You'll need at least ten changes of everything, I suppose, and at least one more bedding set, and..."

"Yes, yes. Aunt Jane. We'll go tomorrow. I have my last two scholarship instalments, so I can afford some clothes. Let's just hope this can be done quickly..."

"Shopping! Quickly! Impossible!" Kitty laughed from the kitchen.

"Well, if you make it last too long, I'll go home and order everything on-line!"

"Blasphemy!"

 

####

 

## Extraordinary sources of happiness ##

 

Her head was swimming from exhaustion, her body felt bruised all over, all her muscles were screaming in outrage at having been abused in such a manner. She could barely raise her arms. The lights were too harsh, the air was too cold and, in general, all she wanted to do was to fall asleep and could someone, please, give her another blanket and take all these people away?

_Sleep now, you won't get any chance once they're born._

Her mother's voice was somehow louder than the people around them.

_You won't have a bleeding free minute for the next two years, Elizabeth._

Her father's surprised and somehow disappointed face looked down at her.

She couldn't move, her tailbone protesting at any kind of pressure, her throat scratchy from crying, her muscles, yes, still protesting loudly.

Also, her breasts were aching. Again.

She had no idea if she would ever be able to sit down comfortably.

"Shh, little one."

She must have blacked out for a moment, because there was an arm around her shoulders, and another one was handing her a squirming, protesting, red-faced bundle of yellow cotton blankets.

"Liz?" a warm breath on her cheek. "Liz, come on. Hold her."

She raised her arms - barely - and he wrapped her hands around their daughter.

"Come on, she..."

The angry little face - who wouldn't have been angry at such treatment? - turned towards her and the slitted, swollen eyes opened. An intense gaze of a completely unfocused pair of blue eyes fell on Elizabeth and the creature sighed. Just a bit.

"Oh" she said finally, her voice broken. "Oh."

"Aand the other one" William held another bundle - this one in a green blanket. "Come on, Liz. Say something. They will know it's you, you've been talking to them all the time."

"But, Will" she sighed. "They won't. It's..."

Another pair of equally crystalline blue eyes opened and stared angrily at her.

"They are probably blaming me for that Chinese I ate last weekend" she said tiredly and sighed.

Both bundles sighed right back.

"You see, they know you. They know you're their mother."

"I'm sure they don't. They just remember my voice."

"They do. They've imprinted on you already!"

"It's ducks, William. Ducks imprint. Not human beings."

"Maybe they are a bit like ducks, and they did."

She finally raised her head and rested it on his arm, turning her face to rub her cheek against the blue cashmere.

"Maybe they did. Like little ducklings."

She looked down at them again, watching as he brushed away wisps of hair from one frowny forehead, then slightly trailed his fingers down the tiny nose and covered the tiny, blanket-swaddled body. As he reached to repeat the motion with the other girl, Elizabeth noticed something and groaned.

"Liz? What's wrong? Lizzy?" she saw him checking the children, but caught his wrist in her free hand, stopping him.

"William" she whispered, stressing his name to make him look at her. "What time is it?"

"Twenty-five past midnight..." he blinked, looking at her.

"Oh, God. I thought it was still Saturday" she groaned, gathering the girls up to her. "Please, please tell me they weren't born on both sides of midnight. Please?"

The nurse snorted and patted her shoulder.

"I'm afraid they were, Elizabeth" she said. "I wish you all the luck when resolving the issue of the birthday parties. And cakes. And gifts."

"Can't we fix it to make them both be officially born on the eleventh?"

"I'm afraid it's supposed to be exactly the day when they, ekhm, appeared. If only you held on to the first one for five more minutes..."

Elizabeth sighed.

The twin bundles sighed back right at her.

"Two parties" he murmured in her hair. "Two big, screaming, indoor kid parties. It will keep our life interesting, that's for sure. In October it will be hard to throw everyone out into the garden."

"No way. We'll make a rule. Last Saturday before their actual birthday. Both at the same time. Or we will have to listen to the younger one wailing for the whole day before she receives  _her_ gift. I still remember Lydia complaining about Kitty being a year older and receiving everything earlier and  _that_ isn't something I wish to hear again, and with much better justification behind it, too."

"My reasonable Elizabeth."

 

####

 

## The attachment of the sisters ##

 

Georgiana looked like a death warmed over. In a navy blue coat and electric orange scarf.

Lizzy discarded the fabric sampler she was perusing and hastened to help the younger woman out of her strangely mismatched outer clothing. She found herself stared at by the same blue eyes as the older brother's - but Georgiana's were bloodied, puffy and strangely unfocused.

"Wh... Why are you here?" she heard as the first thing, more than ten minutes after navigating Georgie to the sofa. "Not... that I mind... but isn't it... school day?"

"No hours on Friday for me this semester" Lizzy provided quickly. "Luckily, that lets me catch up with the prep for Jane's wedding. I was just waiting for William to come so that we can devise a plan to make these two finally choose the bloody cake, or this party... Georgie?"

The girl was shivering.

"Georgiana, what happened? And don't say 'nothing', because I see you're not fine. Are you sick?"

"May... maybe. But-- I think someone..."

"Oh. My. God. I have to call William."

"No! No, no, don't call William. No, please" Georgiana's voice broke on the last word and Lizzy put the phone away. "I mean, I think, I was at my friend's place - in her dorm, they have that big place for parties - and I think..."

"You don't remember?"

"N-n."

"How much time did you lose?"

"The part-ty was yesterday evening" she was stuttering. "And I was just g-going to pop in for, like, an hour. And t-then it was noon and I was late for classes and I feel..." she blushed.

Elizabeth sighed.

"But do you remember anyone you were talking to? Anyone who was sitting too close, or behaved weirdly?"

"N-no. Just normally, people bumping into each other. Some p-pair making out on the sofa. A few blokes trying t-to chat me up, but nothing very... intense."

"OK, so no specific person in the time you remember. Did you see anyone you knew? And didn't talk to? Is it possible..."

"One g-guy" Georgiana said thoughtfully. "He used t-to come here a lot. His dad was one of Father's estate managers. He played with William and Father liked him. Promised his dad to help him with his uni payments if he specialises in banking" Georgiana rubbed her whole face. "George! George Wickham! He used to make jokes that I was named for him."

"If he's William's age, what was he doing at a dorm party for kids ten years younger?"

"Eg-xactly" Georgiana confirmed. "I t-think it might have been him. He walked by my spot a few times on t-the way to the loo. If he just dropped them in my d-drink..."

"Well, he sounds probable then. Statistically speaking, most... violence is perpetrated by a familiar person."

"G-god, I'm such a st-tupid idiot...'

"No, no. He's a predator. You're just normal. Now, there are different things we should do. First, definitely notify William. Second, go to the police. Third, go to a surgery in town to have you looked at and checked. Who knows what that criminal..."

Georgiana shuddered and moaned, shaking her head.

"Come on, Georgie. First stop, police station."

 

#

 

Georgiana managed to talk Elizabeth out of calling William, but only barely. She sat in Lizzy's car, shaking just a bit, and looked pleadingly until the older woman caved in.

Their visit to the A&E was, surprisingly, more comfortable than the visit to the station. At least the A&E doctor didn't ask suspicious questions like "maybe you did it to yourself" or "are you trying to get back at your boyfriend like this" but immediately helped Georgiana up to the examination chair and even allowed Elizabeth to stay with her during the whole procedure.

"Obvious signs of forced intercourse" she mumbled. "Bruising, tears... and you have no memory of this?"

Georgiana shook her head.

"Roofied" Elizabeth provided. "Is it possible to trace them in her blood now?"

"We can try."

"What about other tests? And a morning-after pill? It's much less than the suggested 72 hours, but she should take it immediately, I'd say - as far as I know, the sooner, the better."

"I'll tell the nurses to give you one. Have you been to the police?"

They both made a soft noise.

"Georgie can't give them a definite description or even a place, so it's obviously not enough for them" Elizabeth said darkly, hugging the younger woman.

"Right. If I had a quid... Now, we need to draw blood for several tests. Just to be on the safe side."

 

#

 

They very carefully checked and packed all of Georgiana's clothing - just in case the police came asking.

_If they are able to pull their heads out of their backsides_ Lizzy thought angrily.

They washed, cleaned and dressed all the little abrasions they or the doctor had found. Apparently, Georgiana had felt better with Elizabeth helping her with  _that_ than the A &E nurses. Well, Lizzy just fished out her digital camera and asked to make photos of the parts of Georgie's arms and knees. In case, again, the police came asking. The doctor had made her own photos, but who knew how long it would take if they needed to retrieve them.

They spent the rest of the Friday evening curled up on the sofa, eating crisps with a cheese sauce and drinking tonic with lemon, which they found they shared an affinity to.

When the program changed from classical music to some nature documentary they didn't have enough energy to get up - and Lizzy definitely didn't want to go home at that hour. One-handed, she texted Jane not to worry about her and then pulled a blanket over herself and Georgiana, who had meanwhile fallen asleep with her head in Lizzy's lap.

She leaned back and sighed.

There would be blood results to be picked up, in two weeks.

Hopefully, it would be all clean. Hopefully.

She woke up when William unlocked the door, the light spilling from the corridor into the sitting room.

"Liz? What hap..."

"Sh. Georgie is feeling poorly. She fell asleep on me and I can't move."

He stood there, blinking and trying to understand.

"I... I met up with Charles and I was texting you to tell you..."

"I was a bit busy with Georgiana. Took her to see a doctor and everything. She needs to sleep now, mostly."

"OK, so... give me a second."

In a blink, he was back with a pillow and he knelt by the sofa, freeing her from Georgiana's weight.

"Put it under her head quickly" he directed and then released his sister to lie back again. "She'll be fine here, this sofa is actually rather comfy. Come on, Liz. You need to have some sleep in a better position."

"I'll call a taxi..." she began, yawning.

"I'll drive you tomorrow" he suggested. "I can find you something to sleep in and you could take Georgie's room..." he trailed off. "Or not?"

She mock-frowned and looked up at him with a small smile.

"I'll take 'or not', but I'm so tired I just need you to hold me, nothing more."

He pressed a kiss to her forehead.

"I will. Now, shower?"

"Oh, definitely a shower" she groaned.

"Let me just find you some towels..."

 

####

 

## A charming man ##

 

"They look so completely different, for cousins" Lydia's remark was unexpected and Elizabeth jerked away, surprised. "What? Still afraid of your own shadow?" her youngest sister smiled wickedly. "Boo!"

Elizabeth swallowed and turned away.

"Her father has black hair and I'm the darkest of us five. It would have been weird if she was blonde like Adele."

"Good thing being a dick isn't a common feature of all black-haired blokes. Or all blokes from Derbyshire" Lydia sounded rather delighted with herself. "Some are nice. Some are  _nicer_ than nice."

Elizabeth stiffened.

"I dare say you would have liked my boyfriend better than that frigid idiot you've been sleeping with. George was always nice - so caring and attentive. He picked me up from school and if nobody was waiting home, well, we would spend some time together, if you know my meaning."

Oh, she knew.

"George? So why hasn't been there a sign of him since?" she asked innocently. "I've never actually seen you with a bloke. At least William showed up for Charlie's wedding."

"Because he was Charlie's best man" Lydia pointed out "and not because of you."

"Well, at least Charles and Jane  _know_ him. Nobody has ever met that George of yours."

"I knew you'd be jealous!" Lydia exploded suddenly. "You want to spoil everything for me! Just because George loves me and wanted me even though I was just a kid and your  _William_ threw you out. You're old, and bitter, and jealous!"

"William didn't throw me out. I left, because... If George  _really_ loved you he wouldn't be staying away all this time" Elizabeth simply couldn't stop herself. "Or maybe he got  _bored_ with dating a kid?"

_Dating a kid._

_Wait a moment. Adele is..._

_Ooh, Lyddie, what have you done._

Sudden smack on her arm roused her from deep thought.

"I am  _not_ a kid" Lydia snarled. "Whatever you all may think, I can make my own decisions! And I don't need anyones interference, family, police or stupid social workers. So, buzz off, Lizzy. You are no saint either."

Elizabeth rubbed her shoulder with a grimace.

"I wasn't the one who started comparing boyfriends" she snapped back. "Mine at least has..." she swallowed the rest of the sentence as she saw Lydia flush red.

"Your William...  _William Darcy of Pemberley_ " Lydia started and then her eyes widened. "You know, I'll tell you, just to watch you cry. Because I  _know_ something. Your William, your lovely William, Charlie's best friend, do you know who he really is? A cheat. And a thief! And he stole from his childhood friend, just because he could! His father left George money for his university and your William  _stole_ them. Just like this" she snapped her fingers.

Elizabeth felt her stomach churn and she stepped back to lean on the wall.

"I may be a stupid  _kid_ , sister, but I know things. I know what kind of a guy dear Mina's father really is. I feel actually a bit silly I didn't put it together before, but there can't be that many William Darcys in Derbishire, can there?"

She laughed in Elizabeth's pale face.

"Now you see, Lizzy, you are no better than me, at all. At least  _I_ didn't shag a thief."

_Oh, Lyddie, Lyddie. If only you knew._

 

#

 

The policewoman at the counter looked up at Elizabeth curiously.

"Can I help you?"

Elizabeth breathed deeply.

"I was wondering if you could help me" she began and paused. "It's about my sister and a guy who seduced her when she was fifteen."

The woman's face tensed.

"Do you have any proof? Anything specific?"

"The fact that my niece was born less than half a year after my sister's sixteenth birthday, is this a good point to start?"

"Ah. Yes. Please, come inside. I will call someone to talk to you."

Elizabeth sighed again.

"Thank you."

She was going to be  _thorough_ .

 

####

 

## The proudest, most disagreeable man ##

 

William was being an ass.

That much he could easily deduce from the looks sent his way by all the old cats sitting together with Elizabeth's mother. He was apparently not enough of a gentleman. Well, screw them.

His only focus was Elizabeth, obviously.

Well, he had to admit, he was supposed to be paying some attention to Charles, too. But standing next to Elizabeth in church, watching her in the ivory-cream dress (not that he saw any difference in the colours), he imagined fondly what she would look like during  _their_ wedding. Not that he had offered, not as such, but, well, he was allowed to dream.

Having delivered a reasonably successful speech that touched both Charles' university days, two funny general purpose stories and his relationship with 'the most delightful Jane Bennet' he could finally lose his official stiffness and move his attention to the one Bennet sister he actually  _did_ find delightful (Jane was, in his opinion, tolerable, but too sweet by far).

Elizabeth was pushing her meal around her plate while maintaining a polite-ish kind of conversation with the rotund man just next to her. She didn't look desperate, per se, but it didn't seem to be a very engaging kind of exchange.

Also, her plate was still full.

_Wonder who served this to her. I can see myself eating even twice of this, but..._

There was a large blob of potato puree (one forkful eaten), a heap of salad (very sweet dressing) and a piece of meat with some fruit-derived sauce. He had barely noticed his portion above "edible, not to be repeated soon", but Elizabeth watched it with barely concealed disgust.

He snagged the sleeve of a passing waiter, as the man didn't react to a spoken entreaty.

"Would it be possible to get something less sugary?" he asked in low voice. "I'm afraid some of us don't eat sweets for every meal."

The waiter looked searchingly at his empty plate and then shrugged in incomprehension.

"Not me" William weaved. "The bridesmaid."

That seemed to help, and the man approached Elizabeth, who in turn smiled at him and nodded gratefully as he picked her almost full plate. The moment it was lifted off the table, Mrs Bennet emitted the first squawk to the tune of "how can you, it's the family's favourite", which accompanied the man all the way to the kitchens.

Thorough the argument (when Mrs Bennet demanded the plate to be returned at once and the waiter had, rather wisely, declared the content had been trashed - the ten pound note that William had slipped him might have helped a bit) Elizabeth was sitting silently with her eyes firmly on the place where the plate used to be. She was quite probably ready to just wait it out, but he couldn't stand it and decided to intervene. Without causing a scene, if possible.

At least  _he_ wasn't the one shrieking, now was he?

 

#

 

It turned out that the dish, created apparently by one of the Bennets' great-grandmothers, was a traditional part of every family gathering that involved a sit-down dinner. Including weddings. And everyone was supposed to eat their portion no matter what their personal feelings towards sweet dishes were.

William's opinion on the familial duty and eating went unsaid due to him catching - at the very last moment - Elizabeth's eye just as she was shaking her head at him. He relented, but still, he scowled.

And was branded, by Mrs Bennet, as the most annoying, irritating and hard to please man she had ever had the misfortune to meet. He, in turn, had deemed he to be an annoying, small-minded twit. So they were even.

From there the situation only went down. Even him making an innocent remark about Lydia being maybe too young to stay long into the night was taken as an insult against Mrs Bennet's child-rearing abilities. He could say nothing without one or another Bennet (or Gardiner, or Philips) looking at him in disgust and the last straw was him not knowing the local traditions of various games revolving around the new couple - from Charles identifying Jane by her knee, when blindfolded (made extra funny by adding a male cousin to the small lineup of ladies) to dancing with baloons held between partners' stomachs.

When that humiliating experience was done, he went outside, despite the snow and chill, to collect himself.

"...for her sake, I hope the money is good."

"It has to be, for her to have stayed that long. Imagine watching that scowl every day over coffee for free."

"She had never been very practical, I think. I hope she will be, now. Catch and hold him with both hands, I'd say, and then close your eyes and think of England."

She giggled, in that special way that older women use when they tell a salacious joke and want to draw everyone's attention to it.

He felt himself turn cold, but the moment he stepped back into the room and looked over the tops of people's heads he saw Elizabeth watching him intently. She gave him a tremulous half-smile when she caught her eye and then turned back to Jane, who was being danced with by some elderly relative with obviously more enthusiasm for the exercise than ability to step in correct rhythm.

He made his way to her and stayed by her shoulder for the rest of the evening - but that was apparently also an error, because he had left Charles alone, and that was also some kind of sin against the role of the best man - even though him keeping the bridesmaid's company meant he saw the groom almost exactly as much as Elizabeth saw Jane.

Well, he couldn't make everyone happy, so he decided to focus on that strange, tiny woman that the wedding preparations had brought once again into his life. He was not letting her go anytime soon.

 

####

 

## Charity itself ##

 

Rose was sleeping in her cot, arms splayed, cheeks rosy, pink lips parted in a slight huff.

He had moved the cot from the nursery to their-- his bedroom two weeks after Elizabeth's departure. After repeatedly having cursed the chill of the corridor and the heavy door he had to deal with while carrying a fussing baby.

_One more point for me being blind as a bat. I often wondered why she preferred to sleep in the chair in the nursery, well, now I know._

A pot of tea was slowly cooling on his desk and he looked into his cup with a sigh. He needed to keep awake just half an hour more. Rose would be waking up, as she usually did, and he could still do some work in that time.

She would be turning two in ten days.

They would be turning two.

Charles provided him with sporadic updates on Lizzy and Mina, but it was never enough.

Growing up.

Working a lot.

Living on their own (address in the custody documents, not changed since).

Managing well enough.

Walking in parks a lot.

Not engaging in new relationships.

Spending a lot of time with Mary.

Spending a lot of time with Mary's friends.

He swallowed the rest of the tea.

Ten days was plenty of time for a letter, wasn't it?

He didn't want to call. A call would be too intrusive.

A call would demand response, and pressing Elizabeth for a response was-- not the preferred way of doing things.

A text? Well, a text was... impersonal. Who knew what she would feel if he tried to cover everything in one limited missive.

Letter was good. Letter gave him a chance to think, to consider. To word it all properly. Letter was personal. Letter wasn't a blackmail to "answer me at once".

 

There was a package of novelty stationery at the bottom of one of his desk drawers, somewhere. Elizabeth had laughed for good five minutes when she bought it - all printed in little houses, something appropriate for a real estate agent or a man who wants to help others build their dream homes. He never got to use it - too childish for company use, too important to just use up for notes - so now was the time to break it out and use it in the most appropriate manner.

There it was, a recycled cardboard box held together with a piece of paper string, with a single house stencilled on it.

He pulled out one of the sheets, tracing the design with the tip of his finger.

 

_Dear Elizabeth,_

 

_I hope both you and Mina..._

 

He cursed, folding it and pushing to the bottom of the box, then fetching a plain sheet from the printer. A draft. Better to write a draft than waste the stationery.

 

_#_

 

_Elizabeth,_

 

_Pemberley is empty without you two._

 

_#_

 

_Elizabeth,_

 

_Please_

 

_#_

 

_Elizabeth,_

 

_I hope you are w_

 

_#_

 

_Elizabeth,_

 

_I love y_

 

_#_

 

_Elizabeth_

 

_I'm sorry for_

 

_#_

 

_I'm sorry._

 

####

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So. Khm. Anyone still angry with William? :)
> 
> Disclaimer: I have absolutely no idea how a procedure of moving between universities would work or how Mary could have managed to get Elizabeth approved to live in her dorm. I'm calling licentia poetica on this one.


	15. So come and let's be bold

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, thanks to everyone who waited and commented :)  
> And to my husband who had suffered through beta-ing this thing.

  
The cleanup crew had carried away all the detritus of Anne's and aunt Catherine's life in Pemberley and he felt somehow lighter at that thought. It was a bit of a good fortune that the crew had been already booked for that weekend and could be asked to deal with the additional task, as he wouldn't have had the heart to deal with it all by himself. And, frankly, there was nobody else to ask - certainly not Mrs Reynolds, and not Georgiana. Some of the students actually seemed strangely satisfied with the unappealing duty and he chose not to listen too closely to their remarks, which tended to be mostly in the area of "at last" and "just desserts". They were quite justified in their feelings, after all - most of them were in the group that had worked on the grounds during summer and had no few run-ins with aunt Catherine.  
The girl who had found the 'leaves in the bag' (and what the leaves were was quite obvious to all of them, starting with Sergeant Hanners, of course, and hadn't _that_ been a fun conversation...) was actually one of the few new ones in the group, probably just recruited in September, so he was fairly certain that she had no axe to grind with the De Bourgh ladies, but others weren't even hiding the glee at the policewoman's pronouncement of "suspicious plant-derived substance, to be verified by the laboratory in Matlock as to its provenance". Still, the removal of the boxes to the attic was finished efficiently and the few official-looking documents they had found were already waiting for him on his desk, moved there by Elizabeth once the crew had pronounced the rooms empty and as clean as they could be made without actually scouring all the surfaces with wire brushes and hot water. He couldn't fault the cleaners for being just a little bit bitter about his aunt's attempts to lord over them. He had his own share of bitter thoughts about her and as much as he had made sure she wasn't abusing the temporary workers, he had never managed be everywhere and was quite sure she had attempted to bother them more than once when they were working in the main house.  
He had considered throwing her things away completely, but his lawyer suggested that keeping them in safe storage for the time being would be more prudent since this didn't give aunt Catherine the possibility of accusing him of wilful property damage. As it was now, he had only secured the items she had chosen to leave behind and, as they hadn't removed anything but obvious trash, he could and was ready to hand over any and all objects should she request them.  
Through her lawyer, preferably.  
  
#  
  
The corridor floor was freshly washed, the windows crystal-clear as he looked outside to check on the crew's progress. They were still collecting the apples, together with his estate workers and there was another group equipped with long rakes cleaning the lawn of all fruit too spoilt to be even considered as destined to anything but the compost heap and the leaves that fell during the fruit collection.  
In his study, he checked the calendar just to be sure, but he already knew that it would be the last raking the lawn would undergo that year - fortunately, as everyone mostly hated that task, with its mind-numbing boringness and palm-shredding physical effort. From now on, it would be only the mowing of the leaves into finely shredded pieces that would later on become a perfect natural fertiliser. Ever since making that slight change - one of the constant point of contention between him and aunt Catherine - he had managed to save significantly on the spring lawn maintenance.  
He combed back his hair with both hands, trying to organise his thoughts again. His thumbs touched the slightly rougher patches made by the greying of hair at his temples.  
_You aren't getting younger, William. Time to finally do something about your so-called personal life. Now._  
  
#  
  
He pulled out the paper folder and spread its contents on the desktop. He sat for a moment, blinking and looking at, but not really reading, Rose's documents. School reports, birth certificate, custody agreement... They'd have to make a new version of this, and one for Mina, too, to ensure the rules of visiting, the alimony payments, the... He swallowed, painfully. Not that he didn't trust Elizabeth, but it would be better for all four of them to have it properly in writing, just in case someone tried _something_. Someone like aunt Catherine or Maura De Bourgh. Or, for some insane reason, Elizabeth's parents. They didn't seem very interested in their eldest grandchildren for the time being, but who knew what craziness may sprout in the least fortunate moment.  
He pressed his fingers to his eyes again.  
The next moves were set and the decision was made. He couldn't renege on the promise he had made to Rose and Lizzy, however much it felt like a stab to his heart. At least he got Elizabeth to accept money for the girls' upkeep, and that meant transferring them to a better school -- hopefully soon -- where they could have a fresh start - all of them, including Elizabeth herself. A new place, where he could visit them if he played his cards well.  
He opened the laptop again to review the research done in the middle of last night. It all looked fine. A bit of useful work done for Lizzy, to take some pressure off her. She would be able to just take this list and simply visit the flats at her convenience. He chose places in a reasonable price range - nothing too posh or too shabby, just average, to avoid putting too much pressure on her and creating a feeling of indebtedness that a more expensive localisation could engender. The schools in these areas seemed promising, too. He had checked Mina's current school and it had, in fact, a fairly good ranking (but not the best), so he used that as a baseline and looked for ones at least better than that.  
He tapped his fingers on the side of the keyboard for a moment, trying to make up his mind.  
_Oh, well._  
He added the most promising-looking private schools to the list. He certainly could afford the expense and if only Elizabeth agreed, the girls would be much better taken care of than in any state school. And he could expect their situation to be taken into account by the teachers who would look out for any inappropriate behaviour...  
_Yes, definitely. And since it's for the good of the girls, she will agree._  
Not that he was happy about tricking Elizabeth in any way, but it really _was_ for the girls' benefit. So there.  
The flats he had picked were all around the city but it probably wouldn't matter that much if they stayed close to her old place or not. From Rose's terse description there was no love lost between Elizabeth and most of her family - except for Jane and Charles, obviously, and probably Kitty and Mary, if Rose's observations were correct. He snorted at the thought of Lizzy's father, who still seemed to be the epitome of a doddering university professor with no connection to the reality of his supposedly favourite daughter's life. And with no regard for her needs and likes. The way Rose reacted to the issue of Elizabeth's craftwork made William search his memories in panic, trying to identify whether at any point _he_ might have managed to disparage it in any way. He couldn't be _completely_ sure, but he had never felt anything but highest respect for her skills in that area, so he deeply hoped he hadn't happened to dismiss it unwittingly.  
Other than the closest relatives, well, he could only guess how Lizzy got on with her extended family, but when Rose described the party at the Bennets' house they had attended, he recognised some of the catty older ladies as the sister and cousins of Mrs Bennet, and if _that_ was the society that Lizzy was keeping, she wouldn't suffer for the loss of it. It was no wonder she had problems with self-image after prolonged exposure to that little coterie.  
Fine, he had to admit he had contributed to _that_ , too. But if she gave him -- them -- a chance, he'd spend the next thirteen heaping praise on her, daily, without hesitation or effort. He could easily find more than enough reasons to do so, should she only allow him.  
And even if they couldn't see each other daily, he would visit them every week if Elizabeth agreed. Being one's own boss had some perks, working remotely included (as long as he wasn't required on one of the sites). Maybe he could drive the girls to school a few times - or walk with them, or pick them up. He definitely should show up at a school concert or two -- that would settle down all the cats in the School Council, or whatever these were called. Nobody would be telling a kid of his that she's inadequate. Nobody would be treating being brought up by _Elizabeth Bennet_ as some kind as a disadvantage to his daughters. Of course, the best solution would be for them to be transferred to a new, _normal_ school, but if _that_ was not possible immediately, he would make sure that his daughters -- and their mother -- were treated properly.  
His fingers curled around the armrests, soft leather giving in under pressure.  
He _dared_ them to say something to the contrary. They would see that it wasn't only the Darcy _girls_ who could hit people.  
Well, _he_ would be using well-aimed cease-and-desist orders. They caused less damage.  
  
#  
  
He made a neat stack of the documents and slipped them into a larger plastic envelope. He'd have to discuss them with Elizabeth, probably go to London... Maybe he could actually go to London with them? Not to visit the flats -- he would give her the list and she could make the decision herself -- but to sign any paperwork at the school that would be needed...  
Would Mina or Rose want to change their names? And if so, which way?  
He could imagine Rose wishing to change her name to 'Bennet', just as a show of solidarity with Mina.  
He could also imagine Mina changing her name to 'Darcy', to finally end the incessant bullying. But that would mean leaving Elizabeth, in a manner of speaking, 'alone' with her own maiden surname, and the girls changing 'away' from her.  
Hyphenated. That would work. It didn't mean that one's parents were necessarily married, but it also gave a suggestion that they are in a relationship, somehow. And the girls would be left with both their original surname and get the 'other one', too.  
He stood up to see what the grounds crew was up to, but they had apparently dealt with the trees directly next to the house, picking the last of the fruit still hanging, too. The lawn and the alleys were empty, except for, well. Except for Elizabeth.  
She was wearing something he hadn't seen her in yet -- and he quietly catalogued all her outfits from the previous week, making sure he had stored the memories, just in case -- it was a long, dark red dress, no sleeves, no decoration he could see from that distance. And she had undone her braid from the morning, letting her hair flow free.  
And she was barefoot.  
She stopped by a stone bench and spread something on it, then sat down and turned her face to the sun.  
He was out of the study door before he noticed he was moving.  
His steps faltered in the middle of the corridor and he turned back.  
_The documents._  
_No._  
He pivoted in place and quickly marched towards his bedroom.  
_Yes. Oh yes._  
  
####  
  
Up close, it was rather obvious that Elizabeth had been...  
_Is she crying? Why is she crying? Something happened?_  
"Lizzy?"  
Her head turned to him in a jerk, eyes red and nose a bit runny.  
"W-Will."  
Even her stuttering was adorable. Even her red nose and eyes and blush and...  
_I am so screwed._  
"What's wrong?" he found himself asking, _like an idiot, very suave, William_ , but still, there was no better way to phrase it.  
She shrugged, that shrug that said "something very important, but I can't tell you, because you'd never understand anyway". The same one she'd always given when he asked her about her conflicts with Aunt Catherine, or about her studies, or... or about mostly anything. And he had to admit he had never tried asking for more details. He had never asked for an _actual_ explanation. It had been more comfortable to interpret that shrug as "not important". The easy way out, at the same time not doing anything and having the justification of acquiescing to her wishes. Not a particularly adult behaviour, he had to admit now. Now he knew the cost of such interpretation, and he was right there, looking at her profile, her reddening nose and her puffy eyes, and it was a heart-rending thing if he had ever witnessed one.  
"Come on, Lizzy" he sat down on the grass in front of her and very cautiously reached out to run his thumb along the instep of her foot, which was the part of her closest to him. "You... I can't bear this, right now. What's wrong? I thought we agreed this would be the best way to organise this? I know it will be hard for... well, all of us, at the beginning, it will definitely be a challenge for me, but we can work it out, can't we? Now that we _are_ talking like proper grown-ups should?"  
She took a shuddering breath and he took the chance, drawing the thin foot closer, tracing the muscles and delicate bone, kneading the tension away.  
"I spoke to Mina about... Well, about what we discussed. _William, what_ ** _ **are**_** _you doing?_ "  
His eyes snapped up to hers as she snatched the foot away, looking at him in surprise mixed with apprehension.  
"I..." he coughed "you seemed-- stressed? I thought, maybe, you know..."  
"Oh."  
She sat, all stiff, for a moment, blinking at something in the distance. He watched her silently, hands on his knees, and tried to anticipate her next move. He could _hope_ for some physical closeness - however limited - but, of course, wouldn't _push_ for it, by any means. Finally, he saw the tension bleed from her shoulders and she smiled tentatively.  
"Just..." she swallowed. "Don't press too hard?"  
He nodded and, for a moment, simply held the grass-stained toes in his hand, warming them up, as Elizabeth tried to find the place where she had lost her focus.  
"Mina said..." she rubbed her eyes for a moment. "I..."  
"You told her about our discussion?"  
"Yes!" she sighed with a small smile. "And she asked me about Christmas, and that got me thinking that maybe we should make some plans" she said finally, her voice unsteady. "How to organise it all. I mean, it will be pretty up here and I know Lambton is making a big celebration, and there will be the skating rink and all... but London will be nice, too. Despite all the smog. There will be shops and everything, and the theatres and Rose has never seen any Christmas ballet!"  
He grinned a bit.  
"I have to admit, she didn't. There was no occasion."  
"She could, this, year, you know" Elizabeth looked at him... pleadingly? "You could bring them on the twenty-second, it's going to be a Friday -- or, or maybe the school will agree to let them out a bit earlier? And we... I mean, you wouldn't have to, if you don't want to, obviously, but we could go somewhere, all four of us. So that they can, you know. Get proper family-like Christmas everything, with us both, the theatre and the shopping and maybe a walk to see the decorations. I know they are not little kids anymore, but we have so much to... And I could take them to an early dinner at my mother's, so they could meet all the family together, and take part in the singing and... And then you'd take them back for the evening, and be here by nightfall. I know you do more of a supper than a dinner, so that wouldn't be that hard to organise..."  
"Wait, wait, Lizzy, what are you talking about?" he frowned, trying to visualise what she was saying. He squeezed her foot slightly, his hands following the movements he thought long forgotten. "Why would _I_ be bringing them down to London? I wanted to ask if I could visit you all for Christmas and maybe take a small trip somewhere, just the four of us, together."  
She blinked the tears from her eyes.  
"What?"  
"We've discussed this yesterday, didn't we? I just told Rose to pack a bag and I wanted to give you the papers you'd need to transfer her to a new school properly."  
_And I'd much rather have it_ ** _ **not**_** _be Mina's school, but rather some place where teachers won't treat_ ** _ **my**_** _Lizzy like a second-rate parent..._  
She hiccuped.  
"I just, I just told Mina I'd bring - hic - her things next weekend and - hic - wanted to collect all the papers _you'd_ need..." she trailed off, confused. "Oh, dear."  
"I thought we agreed yesterday that they would be going with you to London" he squeezed a bit harder, trying to understand what had happened. "It makes more sense for them..."  
"It wasn't what we agreed at all...!"  
"Wait, but you said yourself...!"  
"No, _you_ said they should stay with the parent who can care for them better... and you offered to make sure they'd have a place to live together..."  
"Well, _yes_ , I offered to pay for anything you'd need to move out of your current flat, and I did some research where you could move..."  
"Wait, _what_?"  
"I made a list of suitable flats you can view" he pulled out the folded sheets and dropped it on the bench next to her. "Just a short one, but all places have some very nice schools nearby."  
"William."  
"And I added a few that seemed reasonable, but of course, you'd have to check them..."  
" _William_."  
"Liz?"  
"Why did you make me a list of flats to rent in the city where _I_ live - I've lived almost all my life - and that you rarely even visit?"  
He looked up at her, surprised.  
"I thought you'd be happy to have less work..."  
She sighed deeply.  
"William, you know next to _nothing_ about London. About the neighbourhoods. About the distance from the Tube."  
"But, Liz..."  
"William!" she pulled her foot down and stood up, breathing deeply, opening the list and scanning it quickly, but then sat back down. "I don't really want to discuss this, but, Will, this list is useless. This one" she pointed out "is in an area with no buses. Twenty minutes to the Tube. This, this looks like..." she trailed off "...like the area around my old primary, actually. And that's _bad_. And the others are similar. William" she folded the papers back and pressed her lips into a thin line "I dearly hope you hadn't set up any meetings with these agencies."  
He blushed.  
_Like a wee boy caught with his hand in a cookie jar. What is it with me and being an idiot today?_  
"William! Are you... No, no. No. Not doing this. I don't even... This is presumptuous and... No. Simply no. Do I really look _that_ helpless? Like I can't find _a flat_ on my own? I may be short, but I'm a bloody grownup. And I _know_ that city. _You_ got lost on the Millennium Bridge, for chrissake!"  
_Looking at it from that point of view... yeah._  
He cringed. And she was walking away.  
"Liz, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry" he stepped in front of her and held his hands up, _begging_ her not to go. "Please? Can we talk? Because it seems we still have some serious points to discuss and, despite what both of us apparently thought, we didn't _really_ discuss them yesterday."  
She turned her head away and breathed deeply.  
"Fine. But I am _not_ happy. This--" she pointed to the sheets of printed paper, now merrily fluttering over the lawn "this is like... like an insult. I know you meant well, but..." she sighed.  
"I see your point, Liz. I really do" he caught her elbow and navigated her back to the bench. "It was... OK, it was stupid. But, to my defence, it was the middle of the night and I was kind of high on the fact that we had come to an agreement -- which we obviously hadn't -- and started thinking what I could do to make it easier all around. And started clicking..."  
"And then" she brought up one of the pages and pointed to the timestamp of the printout "it was four o'clock in the morning and you felt like you've accomplished something major?"  
He grimaced.  
"I might have?"  
She sat down and leaned forward tiredly, and he immediately took the spot in front of her again.  
"This all doesn't make sense and is completely useless" she said finally, sighing. "Because they should stay at Pemberley anyway."  
He looked up when she fell silent and saw her blinking away the tears.  
"They belong with you" he replied and bit the inside of his cheek to stop himself from blurting out something more. "You are the parent they need."  
Elizabeth covered her face, her shoulders shaking, and for a moment, he couldn't find anything to say.  
"We're both idiots" she managed. "But they definitely belong with _you_."  
"I think it will be better if they both go with you to London" he said stubbornly.  
"But they will be so much better off here!" she protested, wiping her face with her much too small handkerchief. "London is big, dangerous and... and dirty, and here they'd have all the fresh air they need, and..."  
"They need their mother more than they need fresh air. You can always move a bit farther outside the city - and you know best where that would be, yes, I admit - but" he grimaced. "I can't provide them with a replacement mother."  
He trailed his fingers up her foot again, massaging each inch separately.  
"I could come every weekend" she whispered, face fully covered by her hands again. "They should have a stable, proper home at least, and I can't provide _that_. My flat is barely enough for me and... one of them, you know. And even with your help and a new flat, I'd have to depend on my parents for interim before we'd move."  
_No, you wouldn't. I just promised you yesterday that I'd help with everything, but, well, I know you, Elizabeth. Despite everything, I know you, and I see you now._  
He moved his hand just a bit higher, rolling her ankle in all directions, relaxing the tense muscle all around it.  
"They need their father, too, you know" she said finally. "Mina asked me about you a few times last year. I kind of... tried to explain..." she sighed. "But I could never get it right. She was always slightly angry later and I think it would do her good to stay here and get to know you properly. I..." she sniffed. "I think they may be a bit disappointed with me now."  
He switched to the other foot, drawing it down to his lap - from experience, a small massage would distract her and they both definitely required some relaxation right now. He kneaded the stiff sole carefully as she took long, calming breaths.  
"Why would they be disappointed?" he asked softly. "You are, by all accounts, a wonderful mother. Rose was so happy when she told me about that month spent with you that I was a bit jealous, actually. You did everything for her, and all the stuff that I can't. Even with Georgiana here Rose never had a chance to... to be taken care of, properly."  
"Because I ripped us all apart" she said so softly he had to lean closer to hear her. "Just because I was a proud, spiteful little witch. When I told Rose - because she asked me directly - that it was all about that bloody pre-nup, I felt so stupid. I broke us just because I couldn't explain it all to you properly. It was easier to pack and run than to stay and talk."  
His fingers crawled up to her ankle and worked on this joint too, trying to loosen it up a bit.  
"It wasn't your fault" he said, not raising his head, completely focused on the thin-boned, narrow foot in his hold. "I wasn't the best man to explain things to. I was a bloody oaf, actually. I thought if I told you to do things, you'd do them, simple as that. I didn't want to hear anything to the contrary."  
"I should have tried harder" she sighed and he felt her fingers tangling in his hair, combing through them, tracing the lines of silver from his temples back to the nape of his neck.  
"You shouldn't have had to" he corrected and reached up for her, pulling her down from the bench, tumbling, into his arms. Her head still fit neatly on his chest, just like it used to, her cheek felt just perfect pressed into the soft knit of his sweater, her hands easily went around his back, fingers buried in his hair. "Oh, Lizzie, you shouldn't av ad te..." he whispered into her tousled mane.  
"You're playing dirty" she moaned softly.  
"Ah dunna" he murmured. "Ah dunna know what'ya mean" he prodded her head with his nose, gaining access to her cheek and covering it with small kisses.  
"Will! What would your very important investors from all around the country say if they heard you speaking like this? You sound like a... _a farmer_!"  
"Ah dunna care about'em" his breath washing her neck sent a shiver through her. "Now, Lizzy, will ye be a reasonable gel and stop makin' gran' plans of goin' away and leavin' us all alone 'ere in this big ahs?"  
She sighed and leaned back, to look him in the face.  
"You are a very, very bad boy, William Darcy" she said with an effort. "Damn you and your damned se... damned accent. We're too old to play games like that."  
"Maybe I should have proposed like this, all these years ago, when we were so much younger" he smirked at her. "Because, really, the way you react makes me think I didn't use the right approach at the time."  
She opened her mouth again, but before she managed to produce an adequate retort, he kissed these annoyingly pink lips and, just for seconds, everything went gloriously, blissfully away and he could focus only on her.  
  
####  
  
"OK. Looking at the situation outside, I'd say you can stop packing, Rose" Mina said with a relieved sigh.  
"What? Is it raining?" Rose straightened and looked out surprised. "I thought the forecast said it's going to be nice."  
"Well, no, not raining. But I _think_ Mom is not going anywhere" the younger sister pointed outside. "They are _kissing_. On the lawn."  
Rose was by her side in a split second.  
"Wow" she managed. "Dad is... what are they..."  
"Yeah" Mina grimaced. "Someone should remind them this is actually an almost public place."  
"They are not doing anything _that_ bad."  
"Sure, but still..."  
"What _we_ should be doing is unpacking, before they notice."  
They looked back at two backpacks - one full, one still open - and cringed.  
"Yeah, we'd better get all these things back in the closet" Mina bit her lip.  
"And to the kitchen."  
"OK, I unpack here, you run to Mrs R and give her the food back. I hope she can somehow arrange it in the kitchen so that Mom doesn't notice it..."  
Mina quickly opened the zipper and started pulling out the clothes, blankets and the sleeping bag. Rose picked up the boxes of sandwiches and cookies and checked the situation on the lawn again.  
"It should be clear, they are still hugging, run!"  
As Rose sneaked out, Mina started re-folding the warm clothing they had packed for this little excursion and stuffing it all back into Rose's wardrobe. The blankets were taking most of the pack anyway, so she didn't have all that much to put on the shelves. She quickly stashed most of the items in their proper places, rolling the bags up and pushing them under the sports equipment.  
They had spent the last three days - from the moment Rose was allowed back into her room - carefully planning their excursion. Whichever option their parents picked - and _especially_ if they decided to split them yet again - a small game of hide and seek would force them to, for one, delay the operation, and, two, cooperate. Dad, of course, knew the area better than Mom, but not better than _Rose_. Especially not when it came to the places where two not so tall and rather thin girls can conceal themselves for longer stretches of time. Rose had already picked an unused barn out in the woods - something she had found by herself the previous summer, the building untouched by human hand, either cleaning or restoration, but still quite sturdy and with full, solid roof. They had roped in Mrs Reynolds, who - although she had expressed some concern - provided them with food and water bottles and made them promise to take their mobiles.  
Considering the state of their parents - snogging like crazy, with Mom apparently laughing and crying in turn, still on the back lawn by the fountain - they could most probably relax now and be ready to eat dinner like civilised beings, at the main table, and not in some dusty old storage somewhere on the grounds.  
Rose was back by the time Mina had removed the last traces of their conspiracy, so they made their beds - slightly messed up in the process of packing - removed any forgotten items, like shoes kicked under the bed or a baseball cap waiting on the desk, and finally threw themselves onto said beds, putting the tablet on a chair between them and turning Netflix on again.  
"Go back to that scene with the machine" Rose suggested. "I wanna see it once more."  
"I bet" Mina giggled. "Peggy looked like she couldn't keep her hands away from him. I've read that actually the actress reacted like this herself, and they kept it in the movie."  
"I'm not surprised" Rose stretched out. "Oooh, that's nice."  
"M-hm!"  
  
####  
  
In the kitchen, Mrs Reynolds slowly shook her head at the small heap of sandwiches brought back by the girls.  
"Well" she said into the empty kitchen "at least we have the cleaning crew to feed today, so they will remove _this_ evidence quite quickly."  
The sandwiches found their place in the fridge, the boxes and water bottles went back to the right cupboard and all the little snacks to the 'sweet box' she kept in the corner of the counter. The cookies were transferred into the tin in the cupboard, which hid their number quite nicely.  
_Good thing in this is, Miss Lizzy wasn't here since yesterday, so she won't notice and they will not know how the little ones were plotting. One day it_ ** _ **will**_** _be an amusing story to tell, I'm sure, but maybe just not yet right now._  
She looked at her own arrangements with a smile and pulled the heavy chair back to the table, fixing the tablecloth so that it looked as if it had been there all the morning.  
That particular chair was of a perfect height and weight to be wedged under the handle of the storage closet door and withstand any attempts at battering the door open up to kicking the door apart, and that was something dear William would probably not have done, even if someone had by accident locked him away with Elizabeth, now would he? She had tested the sturdiness of the solution with the heartiest of the estate workers, specifically chosen by Brian for his muscle mass and size, quite similar to William's own.  
Now that the dear children had apparently resolved their issues by themselves - surprise of surprises! - and the girls seemed pretty sure of the outcome, too, she could relax finally. Tea. Yes, tea. They would need tea once they came back to the house. Definitely.  
It was nice to finally not worry about them.  
_Silly children. Even if quite grown up._  
  
####  
  
"Wiliam."  
"Mmm?" he wasn't particularly talkative as he nuzzled her neck with his cheek.  
"Will, we have to talk at some point."  
"No, we don't."  
"We _have to_."  
"We dunna" he smirked as she stiffened slightly at the deeper rumble in his throat.  
"Stop it" she managed to push at his chest and make him look at her straight. "There is a lot we have to organise. The school. My flat. Me getting a new flat, somewhere here."  
His eyes narrowed.  
"What flat?" he asked, slightly surprised, but... not that much, really. It _was_ Elizabeth, after all.  
"Well, I..." she made a small, fluttering gesture with her hands. "I'm not sure..."  
_Oh, no no no. You are not doing_ ** _ **that**_** _. You're not retreating and removing yourself._  
"Well, _I_ am bloody sure" he growled as he caught her wrists and brought them up to his lips, kissing first one, then the other. "You can call me presumptuous all you want, but I am quite, quite sure you'll be getting no flat in Lambton or anywhere around because you'll be moving in _here_. Very simple, really. Because I'm not letting you go. I've waited thirteen years to say this, but, Elizabeth, if you leave, I'll be broken. More broken than I've ever been. I need you. They need you, too. They don't need a weekend mother. They need the both of us, and I need all of you. And you, you strong, resilient, independent woman, you need all of us, whether you admit it or not."  
"Oh, so _Mister Darcy_ decides for me what I'm supposed to do?"  
"Mister Darcy, my dear, is trying to tell you he's..." he swallowed. _Now or never._ "Mister Darcy would like to ask Miss Bennet whether she would be amenable to try again."  
She made a small, desperate sound.  
"But we can't just pick up where we left off!"  
"Of course we can't" he confirmed, kissing the delicate skin of her left palm again. "Because that place was bloody awful, we were barely speaking to each other and you'd been in a constant depression for months by then. And I've been an ignorant, stuck-up git who was surrounded by women he couldn't understand, so he just burrowed in his manly cave of a study and ignored the storm outside as well as he could. So no, we won't just pick it up there. We'll make big steps back and start again from when we were still so in love that I couldn't bear the thought of even the smallest worry touching your heart and you woke every day happy just because we were together. Does this sound like a good deal?"  
"Will..." she stuttered again. "What will everyone say?"  
"Which everyone?" he asked, his eyes narrowing again. "Our families? Well, as far as mine is concerned, only Georgiana counts, and she'll probably steal some whisky from my study and get drunk out of sheer relief. Your family? I'm not sure I care all that much - except for maybe catching Charles in a secluded part of the house one day and clonkin' 'im ont th'head."  
" _Will_."  
"The rest, I don't know. Do you care? Is there anyone specific that will tell you this is a bad idea? Or will complain? Will try to change your mind? Actually, what is it that you're so afraid of?"  
She pulled herself up and a bit out of his hold.  
"I am not _afraid_ of anyone" she declared hotly. "I just... What about our..."  
"This is about your mother, isn't it? I know she was never a fan of mine, and she's been probably saying things..."  
Elizabeth made a face. That face, and that whole body posture, when she turned away from him and drew her arms about herself.  
"Lizzy" he paused and steadied his breathing. "I'm sorry to say, but your mother, the esteemed matriarch of the Bennet family, the grandmother of my dearest daughters, is an idiot. She is the reason Charlie almost gave up on Jane - he was kind of scared Jane would one day turn out the same as her. I've been witnessing that woman trying to cut you down to her size ever since we've met - and she had started long before, too. Don't let her bring you to her level of unhappiness with the world."  
She rubbed her face and shrugged - again, turning slightly away.  
_We'll have to deal with a lot of_ ** _ **that**_** _, I suppose. I'm the one who left her with an even greater baggage of that kind, too, so I suppose it's my duty to undo as much of that as I can._  
He heaved a sigh and hugged her closer. " _Elizabeth._ You can talk to me. You can shout at me if you need to. I'm no longer that guy. I _listen_. Or, at least, I try. I've been listening to a daughter and a sister for a long, long time. I can, if you allow me, listen to a fiancee, you know. As long as she actually _speaks_ , mind you."  
She looked up at him, frowning.  
"A _what_?"  
"Well, you never actually _said_ you wouldn't marry me" he explained with a tiny smirk. "You just left, leaving that _note_. Dramatic, I admit, but still not definite. Also, it contained a request I can't fulfil without your participation."  
"I've also left the rings" she said stubbornly.  
"Just a precaution, to make sure they were safe when you were travelling" he provided quickly. "Actually" he reached into his pocket. "You may have them back if you wish."  
She gasped at the sight of the blue velvet box.  
"Have you been carrying them all that time?"  
"I just might have" he shrugged innocently. "Now, Miss Bennet. May I have the honour of asking you for your hand? Again?"  
  
####  
  
"What are they doing?"  
"Shush, here, take my binoculars."  
"And you?"  
"I have my camera... The lens here is just _fab_. Dad bought it when I wanted to photograph birds."  
"Wow."  
"Is this a ring?"  
*snick*  
"It looks like three rings, actually."  
"Wow."  
*snick* *snick*  
"Mom is crying."  
"Well, I just hope he will..."  
"Yeah, he will."  
" _Nice_."  
*snick* *snick*  
"You got it all?"  
"I suuuure did."  
  
####  
  
Georgiana frowned at the lock in the library door. It had been a mistake not to take a photo of it before she had started meddling with it, but well, it was too late now and anyway she was fairly sure she had succeeded. She slowly screwed the plate back in place and pressed the handle a few times, checking whether it correctly retracted the locking mechanism. All looked fine. All looked like it was working correctly, at last.  
Since the girls had barrelled into her room, squeaking happily, she had been hard at work trying to bring the old lock back to a working condition. Fortunately, the mechanism she had managed to break in the early morning was a rather simple, antique arrangement, so putting it back into working order was doable, if tedious. She could only hope Lizzy and Will would take some more time and not surprise her at her work.  
That would have been a bit... hard to explain.  
  
####  
  
"Lizzy?"  
"Mmmhm?"  
"It's getting a bit cold here, you know?"  
"I'm comfy" she snickered into his shoulder.  
"Yes, because you're sitting on _me_. I, however, am starting to feel all forty-two of my years, and my bones are very, very unhappy with me. So, would you please stand up, find your shoes and could we go inside, to continue this in front of the fire? Or at least in a nice chair by a radiator?"  
She grinned at him and leaned in for a kiss.  
"Poor William, feeling so old" she whispered against his lips. "Let's go inside, definitely. We wouldn't want _you_ to get sick now, would we?"  
"Well, if you promised to sit with me and read me stories..."  
  
####  
  
"They will kill us if they find out you've caught all this on the camera..."  
"They shouldn't be doing _this_ in plain view of the whole house then" Rose shrugged and carefully capped the lens. "It will make for a fabulous material for a future blackmail, you know."  
Mina leaned back on the desk chair.  
"I'd rather take that last one and send it..."  
Rose was already connecting the camera to her computer.  
"To?"  
"Well, aunt Janey, for starters" Mina giggled. "She's so afraid she turned her phone off because she thinks Mom will kill her over the phone line or something."  
  
####  
  
Brian wiped the sweat from his forehead and smiled, shaking his head. He looked out of the car shed and crept towards Elizabeth's car quietly, bringing the compressor on its small trolley with him.  
_Good thing William had bought this thing. I'm not sure I'd have managed to inflate these tyres with the manual pump in any reasonable time._  
He screwed the compressor tube over the tyre valve and switched the machine on. Quiet rumble made him look cautiously around, but fortunately, nobody had noticed. As the tyre reached the expected pressure, he switched to another.  
Yes, it hadn't been the _best_ idea, but he couldn't think of anything else to do. Of course, Elizabeth would have noticed the tyres and she could - and probably would - have pumped them herself with her hand pump, but that would mean either her spending much more time in Pemberley or William assisting her with the operation. Either way, a delay and yet another chance for these two - he switched to another tyre - to communicate. He knew Mrs R had been plotting something and he was pretty sure the two little nightmares were, too, because they were in the stable at an unhealthy hour in the morning, whispering and preparing for something. He didn't go to check, he didn't even want to _know_ , so that once their parents found out, he would have been free to say he had no idea what the two had cooked up. Considering both of them had been suspiciously quiet in the previous days... Well, Mina had been stuck in her room, but he hadn't seen a trace of Rose in that time, except for the stables. And that meant they had more than enough time to come up with some cunning plan.  
  
####  
  
Jane's tablet produced a small *ping* sound just as she was wrapping her hair up with a towel.  
"Charles? Be a darling, check the notifications and tell me what it is?"  
Before she managed to find her glasses, she heard her husband laughing and coughing violently at the same time.  
"Charles!?"  
"Oh God, Janey!" he managed to wheeze out. "Really! I'm never ever checking anything for you, again!"  
"Get me my glasses and show... Oh, my."  
"Your sweet little nieces were taking photos."  
"Of their parents."  
"Making up, I suppose."  
"Definitely making _out_. Outside. On a lawn."  
"Your sister is a very bad influence on my friend, I'm afraid."  
She smacked him on the shoulder.  
"Ah-ha. Domestic violence now, what next?"  
"Well, I hope a wedding, but with these two, who knows."  
  
####  
  
The armchair in the library was soft and covered with thick, plush blanket. Elizabeth found herself deposited on it and covered with yet another blanket of the same material.  
"I'll be right back" Will kissed her forehead. "Just... don't go anywhere."  
"Wasn't planning to" she smiled and tilted her head back, trying to will away the oncoming after-cry migraine. She blinked and then kept her eyes closed, blessed darkness against her overstimulated eyes.  
Very soon - her internal clock was still off a bit after that week - William was back, something clinking and sweet-smelling accompanying him.  
"I thought we could use the quintessential British way of overcoming difficulties" he said before she made up her mind to look, and there was a cup of - by smell - very, very milky tea being pressed into her hands, and a cool hand stroking her cheek. "And it seems Mrs Reynolds had already anticipated my idea. But I had to factor in your specific needs. Take your painkillers, and drink the tea. Or you will spend the afternoon suffering. We both know that this doesn't go away by itself."  
She opened her eyes just enough to see him, sitting on a low chair next to her, a leaf of her anti-migraine medicine in his hand.  
"Thank you, Will" she reached out and for a moment held onto his wrist, caressing the thin skin there with her fingertips.  
"Always, love."  
She pressed out a pill and swallowed it, chasing it down with tea. Over the rim of her cup, she saw William watching her carefully, the crystal blue of his eyes focused on her face.  
"This will not be easy" she said quietly.  
"I know."  
"It will hurt."  
"I hope not."  
"There are people we need to inform."  
"School. Work."  
"My parents."  
"Ah. The flat."  
She rolled her eyes. Trust him to be more practical.  
"Yes, my flat. It's considered good form to inform one's landlord."  
"Indeed."  
"And I think we should, at some point, you know..."  
He cocked an eyebrow in question.  
"Tell the girls?"  
William Darcy blinking in surprise was a funny sight.  
He stood up and busied himself with pouring another cup of tea, letting her watch him move around the small table. He still had a rather good figure. The physique of a rugby player apparently never left one, if one worked out reasonably - or practised a sport. His shoulders, from her vantage point, looked rather impressively muscled, straining the dark blue cashmere...  
_Wait a moment._  
"William, what the blazes are you wearing?!"  
  
####  
  
The tea was perfect, the cookies had just the right amount of cane sugar to make them slightly sticky - Elizabeth actually ate two - and the company was a dream. William, having discarded the jumper and combed back his slightly dishevelled hair, was quite unable to let go of her - or at least one of her hands.  
"William, we _do_ need to discuss some points" she said sternly at last. "Starting with how do we go on from here - how do we define what... what we have? How to organise the school transfer? Moving my things? And" she looked down and a bit away "the room arrangements, well."  
He sputtered on the rest of his tea and she couldn't help but snort.  
"Now, Liz..." he started. "I... I think, well..."  
"The current room" she said calmly. "Will do for now" she looked up at him, raising one eyebrow. "Hmmm?"  
"Yes, certainly" he swallowed quickly. "I wouldn't want you to feel..."  
"Exactly" she smiled slightly.  
"So, the current room, definitely. All the other things, well. There has to be some procedure for people who move to transfer their children between schools. I suppose there is some education department that manages that? And they may have a webpage?"  
"They definitely have" she smiled. "I checked, but it's a bit vague, so we'll have to check with the school."  
"We can call on Monday morning and ask them" he suggested, pouring her another cup. "The headmaster... ugh. This will be one messy explanation" he grimaced, sitting awkwardly next to her, his long legs folded up due to the low chair he chose.  
"We'll have to untangle this finally" she sighed. "And I'm almost sure I'd rather explain this to the Lambton school officials than to these idiots back in London."  
"That was why I made a list of schools, too" he mumbled. "So that you _didn't_ have to do this. Just, you know. Transfer both of them out of their current schools..."  
She leaned closer and pressed a finger to his lips.  
"Shut. Up" she commanded quietly. "Now. We'll need to drive to London anyway, Monday the latest, to organise everything. We can go to Lambton early in the morning and meet the headmaster and ask _him_ for suggestions on how to do this, and then, armed with his input, we'll be able to deal with Mina's school easier. In, demand the needed documents, out."  
"That's a nice strategy, Lizzy. Will you need my presence at the school, or would you rather do it all yourself?"  
She suppressed a smile.  
"Let's make it half and half. We go to the school together, but you wait in the corridor when I talk to them. If I need you, I'll ask you in. However, I hope they won't try to pull some idiotic argument about needing the signature of the other parent. They tend to do this as if they forgot after a while that some kids have just one parent, and not always because the parents are..." she stuttered.  
"Separated" he provided. "Really? They ask widowed people for a co-signature of their dead spouse on some school paperwork?"  
"At least two other mothers complained about it and that was _despite_ the fact that they had already filled in paperwork saying they are single care providers for their kids."  
"That's stupid in some very new way" he grimaced. "Fine. I'll wait in the corridor, but the moment they try to be obtuse, I'm coming in. If only to look at them heavily and carry your purse for you."  
"William, my purse is my business" she scrunched her nose. "And I am the sole person responsible for the fact that sometimes it does, in fact, weight five pounds. You can carry the school documents, certainly. If you still have that impressive monogrammed briefcase, that will be even funnier."  
"But of course I have it" he snorted. "Mrs Reynolds uses some special leather cleaner on it and it looks as decadent as when I got it."  
"God, that thing looks like it should be only used to carry the Crown documents."  
"Oi! That's a very nice briefcase, thank you!"  
"With a gold-stamped monogram on the lid."  
"Well, yes. And the Pemberley silhouette over it isn't very subtle either, I know, I know. Do you seriously want me to dig it up?"  
She rolled her eyes.  
"Yes. Let's make them choke."  
He drew her into his lap, capturing her lips again with his.  
"Naughty Lizzy" he laughed into their kiss. "You want these poor people to assume I'm some kind of secret agent?"  
"I'm considering whether you should wear that three-piece with blue pinstripes or the leather jacket, right now" she clung to him, trying not to fall from her awkward perch.  
"If I go for the leather jacket, they will think you've taken up with some organised crime. I'll opt for a suit, thank you."  
"We wouldn't want the school authorities to consider Mina endangered due to her exposure to the criminal element, would we?"  
"We" he kissed her "we certainly would not."  
  
####  
  
After holding her phone motionlessly for almost ten minutes, she burrowed a bit closer into William, pulled the blanket over the both of them and choose a number from her Contact list.  
"Elizabeth?"  
"Dad, I..."  
"What's going on, Lizzy? Where are you two?"  
She took a long breath and leaned on William's shoulder.  
"Dad, Mina was sick. She had a very bad viral infection."  
She heard something hitting the floor with a small _crunch_.  
"And you didn't tell me? Lizzy, you just dropped off the face of Earth for a week!"  
"Ah, no, Dad. No. It... it wasn't..."  
William pulled her closer to him and she breathed slower, closing her eyes.  
"Dad, Mina wasn't in London. She was at Pemberley."  
"What? How? Where are you, Elizabeth?! Are you _there_?!"  
"Um. Dad. Stop shouting at me. I'm at Pemberley, yes. I came here to see Mina because she and Rose switched places during the vacation. And when Mina was ill - and you know she is ill every fall, right? - she asked for me, so... Georgiana called me, and I'm here. With Rose."  
"And with _him_."  
"Yes, Dad. With _William_."  
"What are you planning now, Lizzy? What about your flat? Your work?"  
"I'll be coming to London next weekend, to pack up my flat. You can start looking for a new tenant from Monday after. Maybe Lydia is willing to take a brave step and finally become a grown-up, you know."  
" _Lizzy_. You know he is not good for you."  
"Dad, nobody is good for me, in your eyes. But the important part is that the girls shouldn't be separated, ever again. And what happens between me and William stays between me and William, Dad. We're quite grown up, and I think we're able to make better decisions now than ever before."  
"Elizabeth, please, darling. Don't do this."  
"Dad, I love you, but you can't manage my life like this. I am going to take this chance - for the girls and for me. Please, do try to be a bit happy about this. I'll see you at home, we'll come to drop off the keys."  
She pressed the disconnect button and dropped the phone wearily on the floor. William's arms were immediately all around her, pulling her into full contact with his body.  
"You are marvellous" he whispered into her hair. "I was a bit afraid..."  
"He is just sorry to lose his only willing chess partner" she said finally, getting her breathing under control. "He always saw me as some kind of extension of himself - replacement son, or something. He was quite put out when I not only turned out to be a separate person, but also an actual adult human being of the female persuasion. You know, my pregnancy kind of threw him off."  
"He would have never done _that_ , I suppose."  
"He never considered an IT engineer to be able to get pregnant. He could imagine a girl graduating in STEM, but somehow it didn't make a connection in his brain to the general idea of an engineer being able to become - terrible, terrible - _a mother_."  
He tried to keep a straight face but failed spectacularly. She joined him in that laughter - tears prickling the corners of their eyes, noses running, maybe a bit of hysteria hiding in the shadows. He was quite sure they must have sounded rather mad like this.  
"So" he wiped her face with a napkin. "First thing on Monday, our school. Then London. Then back by supper, so we can both spend the evening with the girls."  
She nodded.  
"And... what do we put on the paperwork?"  
He looked down as she frowned and considered his question.  
"Meaning?"  
Her lips looked so enticing, he could barely put the right words together.  
"Bennet? Darcy? Technically..."  
"Bennet-Darcy" she said immediately. "Or Darcy-Bennet. But both, definitely."  
"And you...?" he pressed a kiss to her forehead.  
"Bennet-Darcy" was another immediate answer. "Because, really, nothing else makes sense."  
"There will be a ton of paperwork to get this all straightened out."  
"Oh, you _love_ paperwork."  
"No, not really."  
"You do. Fiddling with little details, specific wording, checking if using another tense would produce a clearer meaning..."  
"I'm just good at my job!"  
"You should write a novel one day. You'd be able to play with vocabulary..." she trailed off, seeing him suddenly blush. "William?"  
"I kind of might already have."  
"Anything I might have read?"  
"From what Rose said..."  
She groaned.  
"...you have the whole set."  
He felt her face pressing into his shoulder.  
"Considering that you're definitely not Terry Pratchett..."  
"No."  
"And Ilona Andrews is actually two people..."  
"Nope, not Ilona."  
She rubbed her face, trying to cover the smile.  
"That means you... Oh, God. I'm never touching these books again."  
"Lizzy!"  
"Come on! I should have known! 'The Gentleman from the North'? Full ten volumes of pure Regency smut? Really? Ooh, and I wondered why some of the descriptions sounded so familiar! You used _Kympton parish_ for the house! I wonder what the poor retired bishop that lives there would say about the way you used his _parlour_."  
"Most crucial question is, how did Rose know you have them."  
"Most crucial question is, how did Rose know to tell you I have them!"  
He closed his mouth with a snap.  
"A-ha!"  
  
####  
  
As they emerged finally from the library, they found the rest of their family waiting for them in various mock-relaxed poses in the hallway outside. Georgiana tapped something on her phone and calmly said "hour, twenty-five". Mina and Rose looked at each other and smiled.  
"OK, what is this supposed to mean?" Elizabeth crossed her arms and looked at the trio with narrowed eyes.  
"We were measuring how long it will take you to join the rest of us and maybe - you know, just for fun? - tell us what is going on?"  
"Ah" Elizabeth's voice caught in her throat. "We..."  
"Everyone is staying" she felt William's warm presence behind her as his hand curled possessively around her hip. "You two" he nodded to their daughters "start preparing for Tuesday. School is waiting. And you" he turned to his sister. "Come here and meet your sister-in-law."  
Georgiana was suddenly wrapped around her in a bone-crushing hug.  
"For real?" she asked in a choking voice.  
"For real" Lizzy held the younger woman tightly. "Well, not yet, but we've come to an agreement on the general idea."  
"This year?" Georgiana asked immediately. "Christmas!"  
"Reverend Bliney doesn't allow Christmas weddings" William reminded her kindly.  
"Then... Your birthday! The sixth of January is actually Saturday, I think."  
Lizzy looked up at William questioningly.  
"Birthday sounds fine..." he smiled. "But I think not _mine_."  
"William."  
"We have to discuss this in detail, of course" he held her a bit closer, forcing Georgiana to finally stand straighter and let go of Elizabeth.  
"Mom?"  
Mina and Rose were looking at them with two identical faces of surprise.  
"You are getting _married_?" asked... one of them.  
"We... I agreed, well, yes. Yes, we are."  
"Can we be flower girls?"  
"Aren't you two a bit big for flower girls, kitten?"  
"We are too young for witnesses, I suppose. So I want to be a flower girl."  
"I think we two first have to discuss exactly what kind of wedding we'd be having" William intervened. "Give us some time, kids. She only just said 'yes' two hours ago!"  
  
#  
  
They slowly migrated downstairs, received a heartfelt congratulations from Mrs Reynolds and sat around the table to discuss things over a light dinner. Elizabeth had to actively stop herself from holding Will's hand under the table and he had, quite obviously, the same problem. To dispel the pull that they were both so affected by, she reached for the basket of rolls and smiled at him.  
"Just to clarify" she said quietly. "Except for the list of flats - and you'll be calling them today and cancelling all these appointments, right? - is there any other surprise waiting for me that you might have forgotten to mention?"  
He frowned and then smiled uncertainly.  
"Y-y... well" he bit into his own roll and chewed for a moment. "There might be?"  
She sighed and closed her eyes.  
_Count to ten, Lizzy, and breathe._  
"And what would that be?" she asked finally.  
"I am building a house" he looked down, to his hands on the table.  
"Yes, I know. A lot of houses."  
"No, Lizzy" he glanced up at her. "I'm building a house for _us_. All of us."  
"Yeah, Mom" Mina piped up. "Dad showed me the place. It's cool. And he had shown me all the plans..."  
"Wait a moment" Georgiana pressed her nose with two fingers. "What are you talking about?"  
"We'll be moving to a new house next year" William said, just a tad uncertainly. "It's not far, just up the hill along the road, exactly where the historical gardens end."  
"OK. Nice. New house. Kids, cover your ears. Why the fuck am I only now hearing about this, brother?"  
  
####  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, what do you think now, when they managed to talk at last?  
> (also, I have absolutely no idea how Derbyshire accent would work, but I hope I managed to get it correct ;))


	16. And wish upon a star

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They go back to school, finally.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one took a long time. I hope someone is still waiting :)
> 
> Edit:  
> For some helpful visuals, my casting for the main characters:  
> Elizabeth - Teryl Rothery (if anyone watched Stargate, that's Janet)  
> Georgiana - Jaime Murray (ok, she is 40+ right now, I know, but she fits somehow)  
> William - actuallyyy.... I was thinking along the lines of Hugh Jackman ;>
> 
> And for less central ones:  
> Richard (he will show up, no worries) - I'd go for John Barrowman here. As in "Captain Jack Harkness". Hint hint.  
> Teddy - I found the perfect face and voice. Emmet Cahill (10 years ago). I know, Teddy sings baritone and Emmet is a tenor. I know. Should have made Teddy a tenor ;P Search on youtube for "celtic thunder" and "star of the county down", Emmet is the last one to sing

Georgiana was still fuming in a very fine way when they carried their tea and scones upstairs to William's study and fired up the computer to see the plans on the big screen.

"So, eight bedrooms?" Elizabeth pursed her lips.

"Nine, in fact. A room for Mrs Reynolds is on the ground floor - in fact, it's more of a tiny apartment of her own, with its own entrance and a little study, just by the kitchen. She always said she wanted to write that cooking book of hers, well, she will have space to do that now. And she won't have to brave any steps or suffer going outside to get to her own warm rooms. Unlike here" he nodded towards the floor "where half of the rooms is, frankly speaking, not usable. She had tried the old housekeeper quarters and she declared them more fit for winter fruit storage than for human inhabitation."

"But we'll have eight rooms on the upper floor, right?" Rose leaned in. "How will we divvy them up?"

Mina opened her mouth for a moment, Lizzy saw, but then she quickly glanced at her parents - blushing when she saw Lizzy watching her - and stayed quiet.

"We'll have to see how much stuff everyone has" William said finally. "I had certain suggestions, but that was before..." he smiled up at her and she found herself pulled closer to his side. "Let me discuss it with your mother, Rose. Unless Georgiana has some preference?"

The younger woman shrugged.

"No idea how big these will really be" she said finally. "Can't imagine what kind of space they would provide. I need a place for the pianoforte, and I'd rather not put it downstairs where the fireplace would be."

"Definitely" Lizzy shuddered. "The things this would do to the wood!"

"And we'll need space for all our stuff" Mina pointed out. "When are we bringing it all over from London?"

William's hand rested like a warm, steady anchoring weight on her hip.

"As soon as we can" he said simply. "On Monday, if I can have it my way."

She rolled her eyes and smiled indulgently.

"If I had it _my_ way, we'd be there right now, throwing everything into boxes" she leaned closer to him and teased his cheek with her lips "but I will admit, we have to go there on Monday anyway, to deal with the school, so it makes more sense to wait."

"School" Rose and Mina said in unison, with identical expressions of disgust.

"You'll be going on Tuesday, whatever you two may be plotting. You are not getting out of that. We'll be in enough trouble for keeping both of you home when only one was sick."

"I was considering, love" Elizabeth nudged his shoulder slightly. "Maybe we should put them in two separate schools anyway. Lambton has more than one, correct?"

"Mom!"

Rose looked at her, silently aghast, as Mina pressed her lips closed after her exclamation.

"Elizabeth, this is a positively _villainous_ suggestion" he grinned at her. "What brought on such a marvellous idea?"

"Dad!"

Rose was now frowning.

"You _are_ making fun of us" she concluded with distaste. "Come on, Mina. Let's better prepare for Tuesday. Unfunny, Dad, Mom. Unfunny."

"Absolutely unfunny!" Mina's voice trembled.

Elizabeth giggled.

" _Unfunny_!"

 

#

 

A few pointed looks and some more blushes from Elizabeth had got rid of Georgiana and they were left alone over their slowly cooling tea.

"A house" she said finally, trying the word out. "A new house."

He nodded slowly.

"You planned it..." she couldn't finish that sentence, just giving a weak wave.

He wasn't raising his head, intently watching the cup in his hands.

"How do you want this to go from here?" she managed to ask, finally. "William?"

"However you wish" he said quietly. "I think I never even noticed, but I built it with--with hope? I planned so much space and all I could admit to myself was that I wanted a house where I could invite people finally, to... to have Jane and Charles over in winter, unlike we can in this stone heap, and..." he shook his head. "I don't think I consciously counted you and Mina in, but looking at what the design looks like--" he swallowed and looked up at her. "I think you two were _not excluded_ from the planned group of-- I mean, I would, I had thought, you, well, not thought, but--"

He made a frustrated sound and fisted his hair with both hands. Elizabeth was up and leaning over him before he noticed and the surprise on his face as she slid into his lap, pressing tightly against him, made her smile in wonder.

"William" she held him and kissed the silver line on his temple. "Stop. You planned a house. For all of us. That's fine. Now we just have to choose how to divide it between us all. You planned one big room for Georgiana, I suppose, because of her piano, and you wanted to take the smaller room for yourself, right?"

"Well, I didn't consider..."

"Shush. Let's make one of the bigger bedrooms a music room? And we could put my piano there, too."

He frowned.

"You have _a piano_?"

"Electric one, obviously. But yes, I have one. Not enough place to keep it set up right now in my flat, unfortunately, so I'd love to be able to use it at last."

"So you want to move Georgiana to one of the smaller rooms?"

"Well, if we don't have a dedicated room where the girls can practice, they would be in Georgiana's way a lot, right? So, what I thought was, take one of the big rooms - the one to the back of the house - and make it into a music room and a kind of a living room for upstairs. Georgiana can have the bedroom that connects to it by the bathroom. This way she keeps it as 'hers' in a manner of speaking, but she won't be inconvenienced if someone else needs to play. Me, for example."

"What about the girls?"

She squirmed a bit.

"I was considering three options. One, give each an identical room and let them have a common bathroom. This way they become responsible for cleaning the whole set and get exactly equal everything. Two, put them together in the other big bedroom. Three, put them together in one of the smaller ones."

"They will have way too much stuff, together, to fit in one room."

"Well, Mina's things are in two cupboards and one wardrobe, but..."

"Once put together, it will be a lot."

"So, two bedrooms" she summed up.

"The ones on the same side as Georgiana's, I suppose" he added with a smile. This way we..."

She blushed hotly, hiding her face in his shoulder.

"We could take the other big bedroom, you know" he prodded her back upright. "And then the rest of that side would be empty - nobody sharing our bathroom - unless we had guests. And Georgiana would not be sharing her bathroom with anyone, unless we invited so many people that we had to put someone up in the music room, so she will have some privacy, too."

"That sounds fair. And we could actually have the girls sleep in one of the bedrooms and keep their clothes there, and use the other one for work. And if one day they decide they need separate rooms, moving one desk and one bed won't be that much of a chall..."

He found out that kissing Elizabeth had lost nothing of its attraction and, as a bonus, distracted her fabulously. Even if she scolded him later, mock-seriously, for derailing whatever conversation she was trying to have with him. Holding her like this, warm and pliant in his arms was too much of a temptation. The progress they made since the morning - had it really been only that morning? - was astonishing and sometimes, just sometimes, he was horror-stricken by a thought that _this_ was not what was happening. That _this_ was the dream and the terrifying reality was the one in which Elizabeth had left them because of her misguided guilt.

Each instance left him washed with hot and cold shivers and the only thing that grounded him was _Elizabeth_. Holding her hand, holding _her_ , kissing her, hearing her soft sighs, feeling her hair between his fingers, tasting the tea and milk she had been drinking just seconds before, smelling the verbena scent she used in all her cosmetics. Seeing her golden eyes widening in surprise, her lashes fluttering when she blinked, her cute (note: he had to try to limit the usage of this particular adjective around Liz) freckles, her slightly longer-than-average nose, her pink, full lips.

Ah, kissing these lips.

From the small, soft, barely-there kiss on the lawn, the one that nevertheless had left him with a distinct feeling of having been kicked by a horse, to the slightly braver, lingering ones that made his lips tingle and his ears warm up, and now to the slightly deeper - still not full-blown, but - ones that implied the intimacy once shared and hopefully also to be expected in the future.

He felt her sighing into the kiss and her lips parted slightly.

There was, apparently, some god somewhere that looked after special idiots who let the loves of their lives go. That same divine entity had now granted him the chance to undo said idiocy. If only he managed to work out...

_Oh. Elizabeth._

He got distracted for a moment and suddenly there were two slender hands buried in his hair and her warmth and citrusy smell overwhelmed his senses and his lips were parting by themselves under the sweet, patient caress of her own, her teeth nipping and bringing blood up, her breath soothing and cooling, her tongue demanding access.

Which he granted.

Obviously.

For a moment, he tried to focus on the thought he hadn't managed to finish.

_Ah, well._

 

####

 

The cleanup team finished much too soon - or rather, eight o'clock in the evening arrived and took Elizabeth and William by surprise. The payment was handed over, an invoice signed properly and Brian had come to confirm the progress of work done. There would be a need for a smaller team to be invited over the next weekend, to deal with all the collected fruit - yet again the trees had overachieved and they would need all the help they could get in order to not let the crop go to waste.

"Apple pie" she said decisively as the door closed behind Brian. "Lots of apple pie this year."

"And something to use up all the plum preserves" William added, standing just behind her chair. "And the cherries. Do you still make that terrifying thing? A pound of chocolate, cherry preserves..."

"Schwarzwald torte? Not in a long time, but I could, probably. If there was an occasion big enough to warrant such a flagrant usage of whipped cream."

He swept her hair over to the front and cautiously kneaded her bared shoulders.

"Would you consider someone's birthday to be a big enough occasion?" she felt his breath on her cheek.

"I can definitely bake one for yours" she leaned back a bit, looking up at him. "I suppose there will be some guests coming around, so we should be prepared accordingly, hm?"

"And it _will_ be a Saturday, so there is a higher chance for a family visit, too" he added with a small grimace. "That will mean aunt Mathilde and Matthew and Lucy. And Richard. And, should he feel a sudden attack of familial duty, even uncle Harry."

"Richard is still single?" she frowned. "I remember him always with someone..."

"Not single, but not really committed. Apparently, being at constant risk of getting blown up to bits isn't as enticing to potential life partners as he expected. The current one is holding on longer than the others, though, so I have hope for them. Not that they see each other that often - both in service."

"He is still doing that? OK, not _that_ surprised anymore. But I thought it was mostly the younger soldiers that had that kind of duty."

"Richard sees it as a hobby, not as a duty. He simply _loves_ blowing stuff up. Yes, I am quite conscious of how weird that sounds. Can't help it."

"As long as he is happy with his choices" she smiled and groaned as he pressed on some particularly tense spot. "God, yes, there. Right there."

"Going back to the cake, I was actually considering another occasion" he said as his fingers wandered a bit lower, digging between her shoulder blades.

"Not sure the girls would want _that_ for their birthday. At least Mina is not a fan of any kind of 'death by chocolate' desserts - and anyway I'm not exactly sure how to organise..."

"Elizabeth" his breath tickled her ear in a way that made her straighten in surprise. "I meant _your_ birthday. Which also, accidentally, falls on Saturday this year."

"Oh, but..." she felt her words fail. "I mean, I didn't... Saturday? Are you suggesting?"

"Not too soon, hm?" his fingers made a tantalising slide towards her lower back and she bit back another groan. "Just the two of us, the girls, Georgiana and Mrs Reynolds for the witnesses. Unless you want a bigger wedding with all..."

"No" she shook her head. "Definitely no. Register office, just us. We could go for a nice dinner after, make it a proper outing for all of us."

"Maybe you'd want to invite Jane and Charles?"

She thought for a moment, her head cocked to the side.

"I... Maybe. After all, if not for them..." she looked up and smiled at him shyly.

"They are the force that had put us together again."

"The girls were, rather" she corrected.

"But your sister was the one who gave _them_ the momentum. So, I suppose, we could call it a team effort."

"We could, I think."

"So, us, girls, Georgie, Mrs R, Jane and Charles and their five. Anyone else?"

"Maybe... Maybe Mary? And, well, that would be all. We can notify everyone else after the fact."

"Don't you wish for a fancy church ceremony? Small church ceremony? I _am_ friends with the parson, you know. He is my age - we graduated the same year - and I think he could still challenge me on the rugby field, should he wish to get his hands a bit dirty... we used to be good mates before university."

She pursed her lips for a moment.

"Can we ask him for just a blessing, during one of the lesser masses? I don't think I am quite up to the whole ceremony, and..." she sighed "...if we tried _that_ , my parents would be here before we'd have a chance to say 'flower arrangement'. And _that_ is what I'd like to avoid."

He grimaced.

"Ah. Reading of banns."

"Yep."

"But it will be the same with the register office. They are supposed to display the notification in the office where you live..."

"I'm reasonably sure my mother doesn't even _know_ where the register office for our neighbourhood is, but she most definitely does go to the same church as I am supposed to. And so does half of my family. The notice at the register office will be most certainly ignored by everyone, but the banns will wake up the bloodthirsty horde."

He pressed his fingers into a particularly hard knot and she felt herself melting under his touch.

_I wonder how long it will take us to get used to the fact that we are_ _**allowed** _ _to do this. How I_ _**missed** _ _that!_

"For some of these spots you'd have to lie down" he said apologetically. "But at least your shoulders should be better now, hm?"

She moved them experimentally and sighed with pleasure.

"You are a magician, William Darcy. Be careful, or you'll burn at the stake for your witchery!"

"I would hope you'd testify to my innocence, if only to keep my magical fingers in your service."

"I think I would consider it, yes. Not fully sure yet."

"You are not sure you'd testify?"

"Not sure you are in fact innocent. I'd need another sample of your skills to be fully convinced."

"That" he pressed a kiss to her lips at an awkward angle "that can be most certainly done."

 

####

#

The soft chair by the study window was full of two people who were most certainly supposed to go to their own _separate_ bedrooms, yet couldn't force themselves to. The supper had been attended to. They all ate amongst merry discussion and the suggestion of the rooms assignment was shared with the other three (and accepted). Then they managed to send the girls to bed with a permission to watch something of their choice (" _not_ Batman!") and left Georgiana over her evening tea with her book. Still, once they reached the right spot in the corridor from which they should have parted and each should have gone to their own room, they actually sneaked into the study and fell onto William's big chair, holding fast onto each other. Her hands were in his hair and all over his shoulders - wherever she could reach - and his were wrapped around her hips and waist, pulling her as close to him as physically possible when still separated by several layers of clothes.

"Mmm" she sighed when they parted for a moment. "William, I think we should mm..."

William apparently didn't think they should and she acquiesced readily, at least temporarily. The overwhelming feeling of relief and _correctness_ at being held just so flooded her senses and she delighted in the small noises made by William as they reacquainted themselves with each other thoroughly.

"Liz" he whispered finally, tightening his grasp just a little.

"Hm?"

"I have to admit, we actually _should_ get up, or this situation will become... uncomfortable."

She sighed and leaned on his shoulder, for the moment content to just breathe him in.

"We could... take a walk?"

"Yeah. It should be a bit chilly by now, but we could just, you know."

"Cool off. A bit."

"Definitely."

She stretched her feet and searched the floor around them for her discarded shoes.

 

#

 

It was definitely cooler outside - even a bit nippy, as appropriate for October. Still, she didn't want to go back to her room for her cardigan, so she gratefully accepted William's much oversized windbreaker and allowed him to roll up the sleeves for her.

"What about you?"

He smirked and pulled the jumper on.

"Oh, come _on_. Really?"

"I like this jumper. It's soft."

"But..."

"But nothing, Miss Bennet. Come on. I think there is something that I can show you here that you won't see in your big city."

"But I told you I made a mistake when I was counting the stitches..."

He flexed his shoulders just a bit.

"I grew into it."

"But that colour..."

"I've had it on good authority it works very well with the colour of my eyes."

"Are you going to quote myself back at me?"

"Only when the quote is quite correct" he pulled her closer. "Come on. Let's go and watch the stars. You don't get this in the big city, what with all that light pollution."

 

#

 

The gardens were quiet and empty, the only light coming from the kitchen door they had just exited and the windows in the staff building. He pulled her closer and turned them around.

"Pegasus" his breath washed her cheek. "And next to it..."

"Andromeda."

"And here, Cygnus."

"And a full moon."

"That's cheating, Lizzy."

"Ok, so there is Lyra."

"And there" he wrapped his arm around her middle, pulling her back and making them both look up "there is Cassiopeia..."

"Mr Darcy!"

They froze in place, both hardly breathing.

"Mr Darcy! Oh, Miss Bennet, good. The girls had left their bags in the stable, but I completely forgot about them. I took care of Star, when I saw the girls wouldn't be going riding, but they forgot to take the saddlebags back, and then we were working with the crew..."

"Thank you, Roberts. We'll take them to the house" Elizabeth picked up the hefty bags.

"When did you notice that Star was tacked up?" William frowned, looking at the stablehand in worry.

"Noon-ish, I suppose? Sometime after the police left, but before the crew had all finished upstairs, I suppose."

"So she had been in the stables just before I spoke to her..." he paused. "I am going to be rather angry with our older daughter, I think."

"Will?"

"She forgot to take the saddle off and left Star alone, tacked up."

"But why would they..." she looked down at the bag she was holding. There was a definite sound of liquid. "Ahem."

"Lizzy?"

She pulled the snap open on one of the bags and fished out a water bottle.

"Looks like provisions" she said quietly. "And not for just a short trip."

"Candy bars. And marshmallows."

"And matches."

"They were planning something."

"Like, running away."

"Liz... Liz! Come here, sit down. No fainting."

"They were planning to run away" she said weakly, leaning on him. "William, are we _that_ bad?"

"Actually, it's Rose who is guilty this time. She shouldn't be leaving Star for so long..."

"Will" she turned his face to her. "They were planning to _run away_. Today. Probably planning to stay away until... until we got together. Or I don't know what."

"They didn't trust us to get there by ourselves" he pulled her into a closer embrace. "but we did, Lizzy. We did it."

 

#

 

"When should we talk to them about it?"

They sat in the soft chairs next to the fireplace in William's study. He managed to get a small fire going and they both sat watching the flames, thinking.

"After breakfast. I won't wake them up now, that wouldn't make any sense. But the fact that the bag was still in the stables means that Rose never went back there to take care of Star and this is very irresponsible of her. Star is a living creature, she isn't just an object to be used and forgotten like this. And she's been Rose's for the last three years. I thought I've taught her better than that."

"You have to admit, they were worried about us" she pointed out. "That must have messed up any plan they've had. And there was the police, and all the things happening, and us..."

"I allow, she could have been distracted, but she isn't supposed to tack Star up unless she plans to leave immediately, and she is supposed to then remove everything once they are back..."

A kiss and a warm fiancee in his lap silenced him.

"Stop fretting, Will. We will talk to them tomorrow, after they have had a good sleep and after we are both rested. I understand. Rose was supposed to take care of Star's needs. She didn't. She forgot to care for the horse she is supposedly responsible for and, if Robert's hadn't been there, poor creature would have been standing there in full tack for the whole day. Right?"

He took a deep breath and buried his nose in her hair.

"Yes. All correct."

"This means she needs a proper, horse-related punishment. Nothing too big - they _were_ worried about us - and nothing too small - it is a living creature we are talking about. I'm sure you can think of something appropriate."

"Mhm"

 

####

 

They separated with effort, but she felt they needed this time, each on their own. She definitely needed a few hours to gather her thoughts and work through the onslaught of sudden changes and twists in her life.

She was definitely _not_ staying in London anymore.

All the arguments about Mina needing Rose and Mina deserving a good place to live were quite fine, but the simple and straightforward explanation was that she, Elizabeth Rosalinde Bennet, wasn't going to let William Francis Adam Darcy go. No way. No way in hell.

She locked the door from the inside and, just in case she had an attack of stupidity in the middle of the night, she took the key out of the lock and placed it on the shelf next to the window. Unpacking her small case again was a matter of minutes, so pretty soon she was left with nothing to do, except for a shower and maybe some reading.

_Cold shower, Elizabeth. And stop thinking... no, no. Start thinking. Properly. Not about William. Think about school. Work, yes, coding. School on Monday, you'll have to talk to these idiots at school. With William waiting outside to pounce on them if they try anything. No, back. No pouncing. You will deal with this like a grownup and then only call William in at the last moment, to do the leather briefcase thing. And then maybe we could snog on the schoolyard, just to show everyone... Stop it, Lizzy. STOP IT._

She combed through her hair with her hands and started shedding her clothes on the way to the ancient bathroom. Yes, first a warm shower to take care of her hair, then a cold one to make sure all stupidity was also washed away.

 

 

They woke up early on Sunday with an overwhelming feeling of relief. They would be staying. All of them. _All_.

Breakfast was eaten in slightly tense silence, as their parents exchanged looks that weren't _exactly_ what Rose and Mina were hoping for. Finally, Mom poured herself some more tea and nodded. They watched the adults in confusion, but when Dad put the bags on the table and looked at Rose, she hung her head in shame.

"A month" he said simply. "All stalls. And you will help conserve the tack. A half day each Saturday."

She nodded and gulped down the last of her tea.

"Dad?" Mina watched the exchange in surprise. "What's wrong?"

"Rose left Star tacked up yesterday. Saddle and everything. And she didn't go back to take it all off. She is supposed to be taking care of Star, and so, a punishment. She will be spending a lot of time in the stables for the next month."

Mina frowned, but Rose wasn't meeting her eyes.

"I'll help" she declared finally. "It's half my fault anyway. It was my idea for us to hide..." she trailed off. "Uh..."

Mom groaned.

"Yes, we guessed" she said softly. "But _why_?"

Mina slowly put her fork down and pressed her hands together in her lap.

"Because if we hid, you'd have to work together to find us" she said finally. "Or at least we'd have a day or two more together. But then you told me I'd be staying here, and Dad told Rose that she'd be going with us to London, and first we... so this wasn't really the reason, but we still wanted to make you two finally _talk_!"

"But then you did" Rose interjected. "And..."

"And you forgot to undo all your preparations?"

They both nodded, not really looking up.

"Fine" suddenly, Dad's hands were on their shoulders. "Rose, you will show her what to do. Mina, if you feel you're responsible too, help her. Just, both of you, try not to let it interfere with your lessons. You'll have hard enough time already."

They nodded and he rubbed their shoulders roughly.

"Go, now. Clean your room. Also, discuss how you want your things to be distributed after we bring Mina's stuff from London, because I'm almost sure you won't be able to fit it all in Rose's bedroom."

They glanced at each other and thought for a moment. Finally, Mina shrugged.

"I think we should sleep in the current room and keep clothes there" Rose said. "And we could use the next empty one for everything else. Can we move my desk there? This way we could do our homework there? And move one of the normal beds to my bedroom, so we don't have to use the field bed anymore?"

Dad patted their backs.

"Fine. I'll ask Brian to take some guys and take care of it tomorrow morning. You two move whatever you can today, so that there is as much done as possible. Empty the desk, take out the drawers. Strip the bed in the other room, if there is anything on it. Review the contents of Rose's wardrobe, remove the summer clothes and make sure there is enough space to add Mina's. Now, go."

They ran upstairs as soon as he released them, trying not to kill themselves on the staircase.

 

#

 

"So. Sharing the room, good or not good?" Rose asked cautiously.

Mina just snorted.

"We'd be sneaking around to watch stuff in the evenings anyway, so it makes more sense like this."

"I hope we can keep it like this in the new house."

"Dad told us we'd have two rooms anyway, so we can make up our minds once we see them, right? We'll only have to move this around once we start dating or something."

"Knowing Dad, this will be no earlier than our eighteen birthday" Rose mumbled, throwing herself on the bed.

Mina's ears reddened.

"Really? I mean, Strickland?"

"Why not? Now that we'll be both there, and it won't be me playing you..."

Rose groaned.

"OK, OK, fine. But he is a pain in the... whatever. Last year he got some girl in Secret Santa and had spent three weeks wailing that he doesn't know what to buy and that he's touching no pink. He was the chairman of their 'only boyz klub', that mostly focused on mumbling in a tight group whenever a girl walked by and publicly commiserating with every guy who had to sit with a girl or do a project with one."

Mina rolled her eyes, still blushing.

"He might have changed his mind" she suggested. "You know. People grow up _a lot_ during summer."

" _We_ certainly did" Rose admitted finally. "OK, _fine_. It's not like he is the stupidest one out there. You might have fallen for Raymond, or someone like that."

"Rose! Really!"

"Just remember. The fact that the guys in your old school were dicks and Teddy actually treated you like a human being doesn't mean you're somehow forced to do anything. Don't know if they had this class at your school, but Miss Yang had a few meetings with all the girls - there were separate classes for boys - and explained to us that nobody is, like, obliged to be thankful for someone else's attention. So if a bloke tells you, like, that you have a nice smile and then suddenly thinks he is supposed to get something back from you, that's bad."

"Teddy wasn't like this!" Mina protested. "And we didn't have anything like this, but Mom and aunt Jane and aunt Mary told me more or less the same stuff. That some guys feel entitled, just because they gave a girl some attention, and I shouldn't feel I owe them anything. Anyway, Teddy just talked to me about the competition and then asked to walk me to the bus. And when I told him no, well, he mostly stayed away."

" _Mostly_?"

"He was watching me one day on the yard" Mina admitted. "Seemed kinda sad."

Rose rolled onto her back.

"Teddy Strickland in love. Wow."

"Rose!"

"What? I've known the guy since the primary. He used to sit two seats from me. He wore these thick-rimmed glasses at the time and all the guys made fun of his big nose."

"He definitely grew into it" Mina remarked absently.

"Mina...!"

 

####

 

The quiet morning was spent on catching up with a variety of paperwork, including William firing off a few more e-mails to Jonathan regarding small improvements to the organisation of the house basement, more lighting fixtures in the attic - they had to accept that the girls would probably take over that area for whatever they'd need - and more ventilation in all the working spaces.

There was also an e-mail from Charles sitting at the bottom of his inbox, waiting to be attended to. After checking carefully everything else, cleaning his spam folder and dealing with all the office problems he had been postponing, he finally clicked on what he expected would be either a "what the fuck, William" or "I told you so".

It was neither.

Charles was _happy_. For the both of them. Offering his help with the move, if needed. Asking if the invitation for the girls' birthday was still valid.

William sat back in surprise. He had been expecting much more... vitriol? His friend was apparently even more generous than he had ever suspected. He fired off a short reply, thanking for the suggestion and confirming the invitation.

 

_And bring all the kids. We have space enough for them._

 

He went downstairs to seek out Elizabeth to re-confirm the plans for the next few days with her. She was comfortably seated in the library, tinkering with something on her laptop. He watched her with a smile for a moment before interrupting.

"Liz? Before all... before all this, I've invited Jane and Charles for a visit. I hope you don't mind..."

She looked up at him, eyes opened wide.

"Jane, here? When?"

"Actually, it was supposed to be the 'birthday weekend', so, in a week. No, no, stop. Lizzy. Stop. No panicking. We'll manage. The cleaning crew did a perfect job, we'll just need to straighten some details on Friday. Just wanted to tell you, well, we will be having family over. Full set."

She groaned.

"I love my family, but _not_ as a surprise! Still, next weekend should be fine. Probably. Maybe. I'll bake something..." she trailed off. "I can't really imagine what they'll do" she admitted. "I haven't talked to Jane or Mary since I came here - just sent them a few texts, and Jane never answered, until yesterday."

"What did Mary have to say?" he found himself suddenly interested.

"Mostly she asked if I'm OK, if I need her help in any way, and yesterday, if I'm sure I'm not feverish."

"That's Mary's code for 'are you sure you're not mad, to be accepting that man'?"

"More or less, yes."

"What did you answer?"

She smiled and carefully closed the laptop.

"I wrote that she can come and judge for herself. She may be coming together with Jane and Charles, actually, then."

"What about Kitty?"

She sighed.

"Kitty is _not_ your particular fan. Until you prove yourself by committing some spectacular act of penance, she will not be really thinking very seriously about the idea of us getting back together."

He nodded with a sober face.

"Sounds reasonable, to tell the truth. I still remember her threatening me with the big kitchen fork on Jane and Charles' wedding reception. She was very much 'what are your intentions towards my sister?!' so I understand her distrust now."

"At least your sister is completely, without any doubts, _for_ us. Not sure what we could have done if she was against us. Now, let's have some lunch with the girls and then we could maybe take a walk through the gardens? See how the cleanup went?"

"Very well" he kissed her. "You finish here, I'll go check on..."

"William?"

He pushed the door handle again and this time it stayed down.

"Ahem."

Elizabeth was at his side in a flash. She pushed the handle up and let it fall loosely.

"Which one, hm?"

"The girls were running away, so they wouldn't have had enough time. Mrs Reynolds probably laid some trap for us in the kitchen, that's more her way. By the process of elimination..." he pulled out his phone and clicked **Georgie** on the list. "Little sister?"

"Yeah?"

"Could you please come downstairs and tell me what you did to the library door lock?"

"But I _fixed_ it!"

"I can see it! I can definitely _see it_! Can you please now fix it _properly_?"

 

####

After much-delayed lunch (and some pointed remarks towards Georgiana) their parents disappeared in the direction of the gardens and both Rose and Mina felt a little left out. Still, emptying Rose's wardrobe of summer things and moving books and desk contents to the next room kept them reasonably busy.

"How do you want to arrange it?"

"For now, we just need to dump the drawers on the desk here, strip the bed so they can move it... Maybe drag the mattress to the corridor, if we manage. You start on the bed and I'll run downstairs to Mrs R to get some storage bags for my clothes."

Taking off the dust cover and hauling the mattress outside was a challenge, but Mina clenched her teeth and _pulled_. Finally, after negotiating half of the room, the door and the logistics of taking a turn in the corridor while dragging an unwieldy object, she collapsed on it, right there on the floor.

"You aren't going to be sleeping here, are you?"

She looked up tiredly.

"Actually, I'm considering it. But I suppose Brian and whoever he ropes into that will carry me inside in no time at all."

Georgiana stretched next to her, looking at the ceiling.

"Maybe we should have one here like this..." she mused. "I mean, we never look at the ceilings, and there is a lot of stuff painted there. Like the little angels on the side. They are holding something, but I can't work it out."

"A bow?"

"Maybe they represent Cupid. Well, and there is this little... scene..." Georgiana trailed off. "Uh..."

"Yeah" Rose confirmed from their side. "I've found them a year ago or so, when we had that heat wave and I was trying to cool off by lying on the floor. The floor helped, but the view..."

Mina squinted, trying to understand what it was they were discussing.

"There, opposite the little angels" Rose pointed out helpfully and her sister's eyes widened.

"Are they..."

"Definitely."

"But that must be very uncomfortable."

"Probably."

"Our ancestors had _filthy_ imaginations."

"Probably more like one of the painters - it _is_ in the corner and not that obvious."

"Maybe we can find another one?"

Georgiana snorted and rolled off the mattress.

"On one hand, I feel that as a grownup _and_ one of your guardians, I should in fact prevent you from seeing anything else - or even this. On the other hand" she shrugged. "Well, worse stuff had been painted and is hanging in museums all around the world. But finish the cleaning first. I'll be in my room practising, in case you feel up to some singing, Mina."

The younger girl shook her head.

"No, Mom said I should wait two more days, to make sure all the mucus is down and away from my vocal chords."

"OK. Anyway, if you need me, you know where to find me."

The rest of the cleaning and moving was performed in a remarkably short time, including bagging all the summer items and transporting them to the attic to be stored properly until May.

What the girls did _next_ nobody actually checked, so they happily indulged in their research of the contents of ceiling decoration.

 

####

 

Monday morning found the pair in Lambton, on the school parking lot, with William suddenly squirming in his seat uncomfortably. He fidgeted. He tensed up. He made faces.

She finally had had enough.

"Alright, what is wrong with you?" she asked suspiciously. "We've been sitting here for twenty minutes, we are on a bit of a schedule and you are just... fretting. Pine needles in your pants?"

He took a deep breath, held it for a moment and let it go with a huff.

"I just feel stupid. I'm going to go in, talk to a guy I've known for the last ten years and tell him my kid – and his student – managed to pull a stunt like this, on all of us. What am I going to look like?"

She patted his hand.

"Like a father of twins, Will. Like a father of twins."

He snorted and nodded.

"Also, like a fool" he added wryly.

"Same as all of us."

 

####

 

Headmaster Farlane was charmed with Elizabeth and William sighed in relief. The big man sat there, enthralled, as Elizabeth retold the story (abridged) of two overly smart girls and a number of oblivious grownups. He brought up Rose's school records on his computer and studied them for a moment in thought.

"So..." he pursed his lips. "That last month when we had a feeling that someone had switched Rose for a new kid, she had actually _been_ switched for a new kid."

"Which, for you, would not have been an obvious answer, because you didn't know that there was a technical possibility for it to happen... And for us, well."

"They tricked all of you, too? Everyone in their families?"

"Until they spilt the truth, yes" Elizabeth confirmed with a smile. "Mina was feverish and Rose got teased at school, so they finally told us – two days apart, actually."

"So the sick one is, in fact, Mina?"

"Right."

"But you didn't want to send Rose to school, because...?"

They looked at each other and shrugged.

"No idea, I'm afraid" Elizabeth admitted. "But I think we got a bit wrapped up in that whole... situation. And, of course, they both need time to catch up and do all the missing homework – and, of course, Rose is fixing all the mess that Mina made of her French exercises..."

"Wait, wait" he opened something on the computer. "So you say that Mina had been simulating for a month that she speaks French...?"

"And Rose was mangling up her Italian, yes."

"And now you want to... undo this? Move them back where they belong?"

William looked down at Elizabeth and saw her smiling up at him.

"Yes, we do. Which means moving both of them here. I mean, I'm moving Mina here permanently _and_ I'm returning Rose home."

"So... Rose would be coming back, as Rose, and Mina would be coming back, as Mina, and..."

He rubbed his forehead for a moment.

"Yes" Elizabeth shrugged hopelessly. "Imagine what would have happened if we had sent Rose to school last Monday, when she was supposedly sick. And with her having spent a month in London and definitely not up to date with whatever had been happening here at school."

"I'm still not sure I believe you, mind you" the headmaster smirked. "You have to bring them in tomorrow, _both_ of them, and we'll start on putting this to rights. We'll need to have the... the other one properly transferred here."

"Of course" Elizabeth's smile widened. "And that's why we need your help. I need this to go as smoothly as possible in the old school, and they tend to be, mildly speaking, obstinate, so I'd much rather have a full list of all we need ready, in case they aren't as helpful. I really wish to avoid keeping Mina away from school any longer, but we won't be staying in London..."

"Oh, let's say that with this current situation even if you don't manage to have everything ready immediately, it will be better if we _do_ have both of them here tomorrow. I'm guessing – gut feeling, let's say – that Mina's old school isn't a very friendly place, so they may have reported her absence already, and so it will look better if she shows up tomorrow here, even if she isn't officially a student yet. We'll put her with Rose in the homeroom group – she had already met them, so it will be easier for both us and her. And it will be good to have them together in all possible lessons, except for, I'm guessing, French and Italian, right?"

William shot Elizabeth a look.

"That would be correct" she said. "Yes, Mina's school is more... conservative rather than approachable."

"So, you need a cheat sheet" the big man smirked.

"We need all the help you can give us" she said with a sigh. "We're driving to London today and I want to do this in one go. If we can."

 

####

 

The girls had been growing restless, but with Georgiana agreeing to oversee their day and ensure they wouldn't do anything _too_ crazy (like hiding on the grounds in order to avoid going to school on Tuesday) they were left with an order to focus on their lessons, "bullying poster" and setting the rooms up to their comfort, after Brian and two of the estate workers had moved the furniture. Elizabeth and William left the house around eight in the morning, by nine they were finished talking to the headmaster and by one they were slowly entering the suburbs of London. The Monday noon traffic wasn't very heavy, so they parked one street over from the school in next to no time.

"Will..."

"I know, I know. We go in together, but I'll wait in the corridor" William kissed her cheek softly. "Let's have a panic keyword, maybe? You say "apple pie" and I'll be ready to tear that person's head off. What do you think?"

"I think I'll go in, deal with them in a calm and proper manner and get out in under half an hour without hitting anyone, if possible. That's my SMART objective for today. Specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and timed."

"You escape into analytic vocabulary when you're stressed" he patted her hand. "And into suspicious attempts at mock-professional humour."

Her glare was heavy, but her shoulders were up and tense and she was wringing her hands, just a bit. He pulled her closer and held tightly until she relaxed, just a bit.

"Now we can go."

 

####

 

"Miss Bennet."

"Mrs Carmichael" Elizabeth smiled widely. "I am transfe..."

"Mina had been absent for the last week" the woman cut her off ruthlessly. "We couldn't contact you in any way, so we were forced to contact the authorities. I'm afraid you'll be fined for that last week."

_You are not afraid I'll be fined, you are quite happy._

"Well, Mina has been sick for the last week, so I suppose the fine would be cancelled, should there be any."

"We were informed on Monday by some person from your family that you had left the town on urgent business."

Elizabeth nodded calmly.

"Well, I left on Friday afternoon, and Mina became sick. I didn't know she was so very ill when I left home, but she became feverish by Friday evening and so we had to stay where we were until the whole thing was resolved. However, even the wilderness of Derbyshire has a reasonable network coverage and I've had my phone on all the time, so I'm not sure what kind of contact attempt you've made that had failed."

"I... The secretary can tell you."

"Very well. Doesn't matter, really. I need you to prepare Mina's school record, any kind of items she might have left at school, her locker contents and the complete set of transfer papers."

"What?" the woman froze, like an overloaded laptop.

"I am transferring Mina to a school closer to home. We'll be living in Derbyshire, so you can imagine that it would be impractical to keep Mina here."

"But..."

"I need these" Elizabeth pulled out the list prepared with headmaster Farlane. "The new school requires a detailed school record, current situation file and they expect Mina and the documents be presented at the school tomorrow."

"This is highly irregular!"

"It is quite regular enough for the headmaster of Mina's new school. He asked for this to be completed, so that she can go to school tomorrow. She had missed enough school days already."

"But we can't just do it ad hoc. It requires time! At least two weeks to collect everything...!"

"Very well. I'll take Mina's locker contents with me today and I'll ask headmaster Farlane to submit a request for everything else. If you are not willing to ensure that Mina can switch schools as soon as possible, very well. I have here the official request for these documents" she deftly pulled out one sheet of paper and placed it in front of the surprised woman. "Please write 'I decline the request' and today's date. If you wish to put some explanation, too, you can. This way I will have a proof that I have properly requested the speedy resolution of this problem and you have denied - so in case someone decides to report Mina as not attending, I can show this as a proof."

"As... as a proof? Of what?!"

"Of your lack of cooperation, for one. Mina _is_ in Derbyshire and she _is_ going to the school there, no matter what you do. I am not entirely sure what is your aim in all this, except for making my life difficult, but I'm not going to bother guessing. You will do whatever you wish. I just need either your signature and a sentence that you decline to hand me the documents today, or the documents themselves. And I will _not_ leave until you provide me one or the other."

The other woman went a bit more into the 'puce' range of face colours.

"Fine" she spat out finally. "I will have these documents ready by four. I need the details of the school you're moving Mina to."

"Ah. Happy to. Give me a second" Elizabeth's smile was as sincere as she could make it when she opened the door to the corridor. "William? Could you please come in for a moment? Mrs Carmichael needs the contact information for the Lambton school."

She turned back to the headmistress and watched the surprise blooming on the woman's face as William joined them, kissed Elizabeth absently on the cheek and opened The Briefcase.

"Here" his deep rumble was even more into the direction of 'molten chocolate' than normally. "All the data you may need, including the contact number to the headmaster. Elizabeth, will this be everything?"

"Almost" she smiled up at him and turned to the woman behind the desk. "I need your signature, still. With a note saying that all will be prepared for four o'clock. And yes, I'm not leaving without it."

 

#

 

"So, they have notified the school authority about Mina's absence. I hope Farlane will help us to smooth it out. The problem is, even though it was Mina who was sick, the doctor has her down as Rose."

"That shouldn't be that hard to undo. Anyway, if there is something to be paid, I think we can afford this, and just pay it, to avoid some further legal problems. We really should have notified Farlane of the problem a week ago, but I'm afraid I completely forgot about it."

She sighed and leaned on his shoulder.

"Let's deal with the post office now, hm?"

 

####

As they were trying to park in front of the post office, William's phone buzzed.

"Jonathan" he said with a frown. "I have to take this, love."

She picked her purse and patted his shoulder.

"I think I can deal with that on my own" she assured him.

Inside the building, it turned out that the queue to the needed counter was rather imposing. She managed to fill in two redirection forms, find hers and Mina's IDs in the mess that her purse had become since the morning, find the credit card statement that was apparently needed too, read the instructions regarding proper addressing of packages and registered letters, read all the regulations posted in the next display, review the prices of posting various types of packages, check the offer of posting supplies and get terribly bored of the whole thing. Unfortunately it was required, as she didn't wish to have her mail picked up by whoever would live in the flat once she had moved - Lydia or random students. Whoever that would be, her letters would end up in her parents' hands and she had a feeling she would not be happy with that.

_Actually, when I'm at it, I could maybe, just in case, set up the same for their address. This way I'd catch any correspondence from my school or whoever has my old contact information._

An equally bored lady at the counter accepted her forms, reviewed the documents of both Elizabeth and Mina, accepted the fees and informed her absently that the waiting time for the service to be activated was five days and wished her a good day.

When she approached the car, William was still on the phone. Looking worried.

She sat next to him and caught his free hand, squeezing it.

"...can't be there earlier than tomorrow. Dealing with personal stuff in London. No, we'll need at least until the evening. And in the morning I'll be busy too. See you at the office at nine. No. You can promise them I'll look into it tomorrow. No earlier. They will survive."

He groaned, clicking the End Call button.

"What was that about?" she asked quietly.

"That was about someone raising a petition to the local historical society to review the work being done on one of the properties - the same as we're doing in Pemberley, actually, building the new house just outside the part registered as historically significant. Apparently someone decided that the way it is set up makes the new building visible from the gardens and so affects the historical feel of the place. There is a hill and a copse of poplars between the building site and the last part of the gardens, but still, _someone_ had gotten a few members of the society to 'arm' themselves and block the road which the deliveries are using. Jonathan is negotiating with them, but they are rather stubborn and wish to speak to me."

"Maybe we should go..."

"No, no. This is something that Jonathan should have informed Stacy about, and she should put my lawyers on, without calling me when I'm off for the first time in I don't know how long. But apparently he just can't bring himself to call her and so bothers me, because he is used to the fact that I'm always available."

She drew closer to him and buried her face in his shoulder.

"So, what now?"

"Told him to either call Stacy or wait for me until tomorrow. He needs to understand that I will need time with my family."

She felt a rather delicious shiver down her spine at the pronouncement.

"Anyway. Done here?"

"Yeah. We just need to do some stationery shopping, because I suppose they will both need a lot of new notebooks, writing paper and whatever else we can think of. October will be a very heavy month for them, so let's try to make it as painless as possible, from the purely organisational point of view."

"Just tell me where to go" he prepared his navigation app.

She tapped her lips for a moment and then shrugged.

"213 Tottenham Court Road. We'll have to bring them both there once they are done with the heaviest stuff at school, or they will never forgive me for going there by myself."

"What kind of a shop is this?"

She smiled and shook her head.

"You'll see."

"Just remember, we have to be at your flat before five."

"Don't worry. It's not like it's a _hobby_ supply store. No yarn there, last that I've checked. We'll manage this, another shop _and_ the school before we have to be there."

 

####

 

Shopping done, they made a detour to the school, where an unexpectedly meek secretary handed them the thick folder of Mina's documents and the backup key to her locker. Twenty minutes later they were on their way, a bulging bag of school supplies placed next to totes full Paperchase and M&S goods

They arrived just as the van was pulling up in front of her building.

 

#

 

After a short argument on Sunday evening - followed by a "disgusting amount of kissing", as Rose described it - William had hired a small team of movers who were not only to transport everything from London to Pemberley, but would also pack, secure, wrap, label and carry everything, leaving Lizzy's old flat empty of all hers and Mina's things. The only thing she was planning to pack personally was her lingerie drawer, leaving all heavier lifting to the very efficient trio of muscled young men.

In an hour, the plates were bubble wrapped, the computer and other house electronics disconnected and boxed and the fridge emptied, everything going to the bin or to the car cooler. The last object to be carried out was the electric piano, already carefully nestled in its large protective bag and awaiting its turn.

By six, most of Elizabeth's and Mina's things had managed to already fill the entrance hall, stacked in neat boxes, bags and roll-up tubes and the lift was already carrying the first batch downstairs to the car.

It had all been going relatively smoothly, until it came to dealing with Mina's possessions and one of the movers had asked whether they should also be removing some of the decorations that were hanging there. She stepped into the tiny room, all set up with Mina's favourite colours and toys, all full of the handmade and hand-painted ornaments and felt her eyes well up.

"Miss? Uh, miss, everything OK? Mr Darcy?!"

And there was William, just as she started to turn away blindly, holding her up, holding her close, murmuring something nonsensical into her ear.

"Go finish the kitchen first" he ordered the man and steered her towards Mina's bed. "What is it, love? What happened?"

She shrugged and tried to find the right words, but managed only to gesture o their surroundings.

"This is Mina's room, right? Ah..." he trailed off. "Oh, love. I know. I know. Oh, you've been so brave, so stoic, only showing us the grownup, self-sufficient Lizzy who won't cry over some stupid pieces she so painstakingly sewed, crocheted, glued and knitted together, right? We weren't supposed to know how badly you've been hurt?"

She managed to nod, pressing herself bodily into his side.

"You didn't want us to know how much aunt Catherine had managed to wound you by destroying all these things you had made. You didn't want to add to the girls' distress, because they were already angry for us all. But you don't have to, Liz. You don't have to hold it all inside. Yes, my aunt is a madwoman with no appreciation for what is actually beautiful, and she is crazy to have burned all of these things. And you, you... you stubborn, self-reliant woman, you can let others see you have personal feelings, too, you know. You are allowed to care."

"But..." she hiccoughed. "It's silly. It's just... just _things_. And it's not like they were particularly useful! Just... just stuff. Decorations. I..."

"You've spent your time on them, you planned, you bought supplies and tools, you invested, you sacrificed some other activities for them. You are _allowed_ to be angry, sad and disappointed. This is not silly, this is human."

"But... but it's just... It's not like it's real _art_ or something. It's just stupid handmade. Not worth anything really. I wasted time on it instead of doing more useful things."

She felt his arm tighten around her shoulders.

"Lizzy, listen to me" he pushed her chin up, making her face him. "Would the other things have made you happier?"

She shrugged, just a bit.

"Would the other things made Mina happier?"

She shook her head.

"Would you have been happier had you done them? Or they would have just made someone else happier with you?"

She sighed.

"The second option" she admitted finally.

"So, you did this, you made all these things - for Mina _and_ for Rose - and making them made you happy, and having them made Mina happy - and Rose would have been happy with hers, too. And if you did the serious, important things that you never did, who would have been happier?"

She pressed her face into his shoulder.

"My father" she admitted finally. "He hates me doing anything _girly_. I even tried to 'sell' knitting and crochet to him as an exercise in design and engineering, but he just looked at my calculations and said that I shouldn't be using computers for something that stupid and pedestrian. Considering kids are mostly using computing power to play candy-matching games and probably half of the world's computers actually use their resources to host porn, I think using Excel to calculate the weight of yarn needed is a much better use of said resources. But he only said something about Margaret Hamilton and then ignored my explanations for the rest of the evening."

She felt him pulling her in closer and found herself shaking with repressed tears.

"Now, now" he rubbed her back. "You can. You should. Come on. You've been holding this in for a _week_. I know it's just stupid things. If it was something I bought, I would have been miffed - I was, actually. She did burn a few items that won't be easy to replace. But you never showed anything above slight annoyance with the inconvenience. You can. You are allowed to love what you do, Lizzy. You shouldn't be ashamed of that."

She cried, just a little. Finally.

 

####

 

"It's weird" she said softly as William stepped in behind her, having sent the movers off to Pemberley. "It's so... inappropriately empty."

"You've been living here for what, twelve years?" he pressed his face into the crook of her neck. "No wonder it feels strange. But..."

"It's a relief" she murmured. "I can finally... leave it. I couldn't, you see. Once I was here, it was just another cage - albeit one of a different character. I was dependent on my parents and..." she shrugged. "I'm not sure. I needed to have a secure place for Mina. Father needed to make sure I'm close to them, so he let me have one of the flats he used to rent to students. It was much better than having to stay with _them_ all the time..."

"But now..." he gathered her closer to him.

"Now I know better" she said simply, sighing. "It wasn't your fault, Will. Or mine. Or anyone's in specific. Or it was both of us. We were too young and much, much too stubborn."

"I was older, and more stubborn" he kissed her hair. "I thought I was taking care of you, and I..."

"You did. I just didn't know how to tell you that you're overdoing it in the wrong direction."

"Hmm..."

"Elizabeth!"

They both stiffened at the elderly, slightly trembling voice echoing in the empty flat.

"Dad" she sighed. "I told you I would drop the keys off at the house later today."

"And _I_ decided I would come here to check if you're really doing this" he answered coldly. " _You_."

"Me" William felt the urge to slip his hand around Elizabeth's hip and drag her bodily outside and to the car.

"I don't understand what she sees in you. Especially after all that time. You are... what, a businessman? A landowner? No respect for proper education, I suppose. I could see it, at the time. You didn't care much for her studies, did you? Too smart for your tastes, I know. What were you thinking, getting my precious girl pregnant? You've broken her academic career!"

"Father!"

William looked down at her, facing against the grey-haired, bespectacled man in a plaid button-down and sweater vest. He had never had occasion to interact with Mr Bennet much, apart from some small exchange of inane remarks during a dinner or two - around the time of Jane and Charles' wedding - but the man never seemed vicious to him. Not until now.

"Well, that's what he did! You can't say he didn't, it's all his fault! If not for him, you could have had the earliest PhD in software engineering in the country! You were _special_. He made you... _ordinary_."

"Dad!"

William had never heard Elizabeth's voice that broken. He made two steps, standing now between her and her father, plucked the keys she was still holding and put them carefully down on the table in the tiny room.

"Here, Mr Bennet. The keys. The flat is empty" he said, not turning to the man or giving him even a look. "Lizzy, take your purse and let's go. The girls are waiting for us."

She stood there, shaking, her eyes squeezed tight, tears leaking onto both cheeks. He could already predict an incoming headache of biblical proportions, just by looking at the way her face tensed up right now. They simply _had to leave_. Before her father said another stupid thing or William did something inexcusable. Like hitting the old man. Elizabeth wouldn't approve.

"Lizzy? Love?"

She nodded slowly and breathed in the calm-down pattern he had learnt to recognise.

"Elizabeth, please reconsider. You don't have to move out there - you two can move in with us, if you don't want to stay here. Or you can send Mina to him, and stay in London yourself...!"

_In through your nose, out through your mouth, Lizzy._

"Please, stop, Papa" she said calmly, still looking at the floor. "Have you ever considered how much you are hurting everyone around you by saying things like this? How much your second-eldest grandchild suffers when you repeat on and on the story about me being the prodigy and her being the only obstacle on my way to the temples of science? How much time I spent convincing her to the opposite? How much it humiliates Jane when you repeat that nobody in that family has an actual proper degree except for you and me - when Jane has a double Master's degree in child psychology and physiotherapy? I know, this is not proper _science_. According to you, that is. The same way that Mary's PhD in history is not a proper PhD - and you even weren't there for her when she presented it. _I was_. You, doing all this, is hurting everyone around you. I don't want to hear it ever again. You and Mama, and my sisters are all welcome for Christmas in Pemberley" she glanced at William for a second. "But whoever can't keep a civil tongue in their mouth will be taking their meals in their room."

Her shoulders slumped and William finally pulled her closer to his body, calming her shivering with his warm hands, running them down her back and up, cupping her head.

"You..."

"Stop, please" he said, at last, surprising the older man with his commanding tone. "Elizabeth is tired and we still have some driving to do. Goodbye, Mr Bennet. See you on the twenty-fourth."

"You will keep me from my daughter then? You would isolate her from her family, from her loved ones?"

He closed his eyes just for a moment and shook his head.

"No, Mr Bennet. But if she wishes to be left in peace, I will do everything I can to ensure it. Lizzy, let's take the photos of the meters, in case you want to balance the power bill and the water later, and I think we should go. I promised the girls we'll pick up some shopping for them. Rose managed to use up the remnants of that shampoo you bought for her and I can't remember what the brand was."

She nodded, forehead against his shoulder.

"Dad, we have to go. If you want to talk, you can call me, but don't expect us to visit anytime soon. We will be rather busy in the next two months."

"It will be the first actual Christmas season in Pemberley in thirty-something years, so it requires a lot of preparation" William explained curtly. "And the girls need some time to catch up with their schoolwork after that September. And we both have some projects to finalise with rather heavy deadlines, so our first free weekend is...?"

She counted quickly.

"A week after Halloween. And that's _only_ if my part doesn't require reworks once these incompetents add their modules."

He pressed a soft kiss on her forehead.

"If it does, then I'll stay home to help the girls with their lessons. They have to finally correct these abysmal grades, but they don't need your constant supervision, I can hopefully deal with most of it... They didn't manage to mess up Physics, after all."

She smiled up at him, pulled his sleeve and turned towards the door, but before they stepped outside, she stopped and squared her shoulders.

"Papa, I could have never finished my PhD in London, you know. No matter what - children or no children. There is no school that would accept me here."

"Lizzy? What are you talking about? Why wouldn't... Of course they would!"

"I tried, Papa. I applied to every PhD programme in the city. Nobody wanted anything to do with me. Or, rather, Papa - with you. I am a liability to any university that would accept me. They are afraid of you, and so would much rather not accept me at all than risk having you breathing down their necks. It wasn't Mina and Rose - or William - who stopped me from having a career in academia. It was _you_."

 

####

The car was quiet and dark as they sat in the parking lot. William pulled a bottle of water from the cooler and handed it to her silently. She popped a tablet from the leaf and washed it down with cool liquid, then sank down in the soft seat.

_Thank goodness for his reticence. He won't ask until I tell him._

She felt his warm hand cautiously stroking her cheek and leaned into it.

"Which shop was it?" he asked finally.

"Lush. Straight here, then left. You will see it in a few minutes."

The city around them seemed unreal after the week in the country, isolated from other people.

"He worries about you" William said at last.

"If he just worried, it would have been commendable" she sighed. "But he killed my chances with the way he expressed his worry. He sent e-mails to people who could have been my professors, my future employers, my advisors. He threatened them - academically, of course - with the kind of loss the field would suffer should they ignore my approach to the subject. In short, I was made into that kid in the kindergarten who won't tell the teacher that she can't tie her laces, so her mother has to do it instead."

"That's... a bit of overdone, isn't it?"

"Let's put it like this: I'm quite sure there is some school somewhere in the country that could possibly accept me _if_ they don't google my name or send an e-mail with a question about me to anyone. Basically, they'd have to be still using punch cards. Or maybe big magnetic tapes, like the ones in movies. Because if they have any inkling regarding the existence of Internet and can type, they will learn about me in ten minutes from sending their first e-mail."

"What did you want to write your PhD about?" he asked softly, not looking away from the street. "Was it something theoretical? Something practical? Something that I could _potentially_ understand?"

She giggled, then moaned as her temples were shot with pain.

"I wanted to better explain the phenomenon of free software distribution. I wanted to make it a revolutionary project - a combination of sociology, software engineering and software project management. To depict the international effort of thousands of contributors who are working on free, open and high-quality software in a 'bazaar' model. I wanted to give it the social context, make it the commentary on modern times through the eyes of groups of united introverts working for the common goal."

He blinked.

"Sounds complex."

"Guess why nobody wanted to pick it up as an advisor - even if they weren't scared to death of my father" she sniffed. "I stopped trying after six different departments asked 'would you like to change the subject of your thesis' as the very first question. _These_ were the ones that at least invited me to an interview. Here, this shop. Can you park somewhere nearby?"

"Not much parking space around here. How can you shop in the area?" he finally rounded a corner and found a spot big enough to accommodate 'the tank' as Elizabeth called it.

"I walk, Will" she leaned over and kissed his cheek. "Be right back."

"What? No, I'm coming with you. No way. I have to know what the kids are using nowadays in big cities. Rose swore by that shampoo and said she won't touch the stuff I used to buy her in Lambton."

Elizabeth raised an eyebrow.

"OK. Come on then, it closes in twenty. And I usually spend at least half an hour there."

 

####

 

He watched her profile as they waited on the red light. She sat there, breathing slowly and carefully, eyes closed - not tightly shut, just closed - lashes throwing trembling shadows on her cheeks.

She took a long, steady inhale and shivered, just a bit.

"Darcy" she said finally.

The silence was broken by engines around them starting again and he focused on the street in front of him. Evening traffic out of London was not that challenging in their direction, but he knew better than to take his eyes off the road.

"Darcy?" he asked, frowning and adding a slight 'please explain' inflexion.

"Darcy. Not Bennet-Darcy. Just Darcy. Unless the girls want both names. But I just want one."

Comprehension made his heart constrict in both sweet and painful way.

"Are you sure?"

Out of the corner of his eye he saw her shrug and nod.

"I think it's time I made some wiser choices than I used to" she said softly. "And I choose you, William. And now, having..." she paused. "I really think it will be the best decision I ever made."

 

####

#

_From: tbennet@cityuni.edu.uk_

_To: ladyeliza@gmail.com_

_Subject: ..._

_I'm sorry, Elizabeth._

_I didn't believe in what you said, at first._

_I've checked with some of my colleagues and, as they made careful enquiries, it seems that the outcome of my e-mails is exactly as you described. I am most profoundly sorry for the effect of my actions, but not for the actions themselves. They were the acts of a father who loves his daughter and wants only the best for her. You can't fault me for trying my best to ensure your place in the world of science._

_Yes, I can see that the method I applied might have been excessive. I should have avoided some of the harsher words I used in regards to people who had rejected your candidacy for the doctoral studies. I stand by my sentiment, however._

_I hope you can see it my way one day_

_Your father_

 

####

 

The morning was rather sober as both girls sat there, picking away at their toast and looking disinterestedly at tall glasses of chocolate milk. Elizabeth watched both of them and sighed with compassion.

"Come on" she said finally. "You have to do it at some point. The longer we wait, the weirder it will be. The offer to put you in different schools still stands..."

"Mom" Rose looked up at her with a scowl. "Stop it. We're going. Just..."

"Just trying to think _how_ to explain it all."

Elizabeth smiled at them both.

"First, eat and drink. Whatever happens, you will need the calories to let you survive the day. Mrs Reynolds is preparing your lunch boxes, but I've been removed from the kitchen, so I have no idea what they are going to contain. However you _still_ need a proper breakfast, because you will be having a very challenging morning."

"You have no idea" Mina mumbled into her milk and stiffened as Rose nudged her in the ribs.

Elizabeth watched them with narrowed eyes as they suddenly became very interested in their toast.

"What do you mean?"

Rose sighed.

"She means Teddy, Mom."

Mina blushed. Hotly.

"Tedd... ah, that boy? What ab... Oh."

She sipped her tea for a moment.

"I see" she said finally.

"What are you three talking about?" William's hands went immediately to her shoulders and she leaned back into his touch.

"Mina's in love" Rose mumbled.

"ROSE!"

"Fascinating" William said slowly, kneading a small knot on her shoulders. "Should I fetch my shotgun?"

"Dad! No, really, I mean, all of you, _stop it_!"

"OK, OK. Just saying. Really. Strickland."

"Ah. So had young Teddy grown up since last year's antics around Christmas, or is he still a staunch representative of British young macho culture that can totally do without the stinky girls, thank you very much?"

"From what Mina says, he stopped being afraid of girl cooties sometime over the summer."

"Roooooooseeeee..."

"Stop tormenting your sister, Rose. Drink your cocoa and go brush your teeth. We're leaving in fifteen minutes."

 

####

 

"Do you really need to walk us to the class?"

"Would you rather be thrown to the wolves by yourselves?" Elizabeth poked Mina's shoulder. "I want to see the class you'll be spending your next year with, kitten."

"But, Mom..."

"Rose, you know that we need to discuss your next steps with your form tutor. The headmaster had told her yesterday and she will have first suggestions on how you can try to fix all that went wrong during the last month - and catch up with the others after that last week, too - but we need to know what she has planned. And headmaster Farlane asked us to show up with you two in his office, because he only half believes in the story I told him yesterday. Now, come on."

The small group walked along the corridors, up to the office, the morning crowd parting in front of them like ice-floe in front of an icebreaker and closing behind them with a wave of whispers.

Headmaster Farlane was waiting for them with a slight smirk and a twinkle in his eye.

"So there _are_ actually two of them. I was almost sure you'd be showing up today with one of them and trying to pull my leg some more. But, well, now I have to believe, don't I? Now, young ladies, which one of you is which? Which one I've known since she was four and which one gave Ray that epic shiner?"

Rose smiled.

"I'm the local one" she said shortly. "She is the one who hits."

"Ah, I see. Very well. I think we'll have to tag the two of you somehow, to avoid confusion. Or, should I say, _further confusion_."

"We'll think of something" Mina offered. "I mean, it's not like we can wear our hair very differently..."

"Just make sure it stays within the limits of the school uniform regulations, please. Well" he checked his watch. "Should we go? The first period starts in three minutes."

 

####

The class was very, very quiet.

The headmaster was actually relieved.

The school psychologist was salivating, because separated twins were once-in-a-lifetime occasion to check the "nature vs nurture" idea.

Rose and Mina were anxious.

"So there are two of you, actually?" Tatiana asked finally.

"Yep" they confirmed unison.

"That's good" she relaxed in her desk. "I thought Rose got brain damage during the hols when she came back and got lost on her way to the gym."

Mina blushed furiously.

"Well, _I_ got lost in the local Sainsbury, on the underground and I couldn't find the loo at my grandma's" Rose shrugged. "We had only six weeks to cram everything into each other's heads, so..."

"As long as we know it wasn't an overdose of sun that fried some of your neurons, I'm good" Monica bumped Tatiana's shoulder. "It was kind of scary to watch you, for a time."

"Now, there is just that one question..." Sylvie sat on her desk, crossing her legs and leaning towards them. "What _are_ your actual names?"

"This is Rose" Tatiana pointed out easily. "Which means, Rosalinde Darcy."

"Yep" Rose grinned.

"And...?"

"Wilhelmina Darcy. The first person who tries to use that name other than for roll-call will learn why I was in detention three times last year."

"She hits" Rose clarified.

"We know" Tatiana smirked. "They will have to adjust the records now, I suppose."

"We'll spend the next month trying to get that crap straightened out" Mina supplied. "Now, where do we sit? Because we can't keep using the same desk."

"And I really want you two to sit separately, at least in my class" Ms Williams clapped to bring some semblance of order to the room. "Mina, you take the desk you were using. Rose, you sit next to Tatiana. Other classes, obviously, up to the relevant teacher. I need you two here, after your classes are done, to take the standardisation tests, because at this point nobody knows what to do with you. Also, Mina will have to decide whether she takes beginner's French or advanced Italian. And you both will spend October on correcting all your grades - everything from the beginning of the school year."

A group groan of sympathy from the class accompanied them to their places and Mina sat down heavily.

_It will be a loooong month. And I haven't even had a chance to talk to Teddy yet._

 

####

 

Two younger boys were discussing the hot school topic excitedly by their lockers as he walked by. He knew that there had been something weird going on, but between classes, rugby practice and worrying about the contest - he would staunchly claim he was most certainly _not_ worried about his main competitor, most definitely, absolutely, no - he didn't have time to pay attention to whatever made everyone behave like loonies.

"...identical. My sister has History with them and she says this is freaky."

"As if one Darcy was not enough. Wonder where they were hiding the other one."

He stopped, sat down next to his bag and waited with bated breath, hidden from them by a wall of lockers.

"It's even better. Bella says they switched places over the holidays and the one who was here was the one from London, and the one who is from here, spent September in London."

"I wish I could spend a month in London... Imagine, all the important games and stuff."

"You don't have a lost twin brother to switch with, so stop dreaming."

_A lost twin... switch?_

He stood up, wishing he could walk out of there, but then sat back on the bench heavily.

_Dammit._

 

####

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, any thoughts? About the adults? The girls? Teddy?


	17. And sing and dance and laugh

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A whole week of things happening.  
> Back to school.  
> Teddy.  
> Bullies.  
> Some more Teddy.  
> Family!  
> Also, a lot of baking.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Edit: I had pasted the paragraphs in wrong order, sorry!**  
>  They should be fine now.
> 
> For those of you who would be interested in such a detail, I'll be posting the recipes used by Lizzy here: [ My blog ](https://fanfik.wordpress.com/category/pride-and-prejudice/double-pride-double-trouble-add-ons/)  
> Casting: [This is](https://srebrnafh.tumblr.com/post/174894054926/an-illustration-to-double-pride-double-trouble) what Rose would look like before having her hair cut  
> And keep in mind, when thinking about Richard, that he should be as close to Jack Harkness as you can probably imagine him.  
> This chapter is 26k words, because it kind of... grew... in the writing.

10-10-2017 06:20

From: Mama

Elizabeth, where are you? What does your father mean by saying we need new lodgers for your flat?

 

10-10-2017 06:22

From: Mama

ELizabeth!!!!

 

10-10-2017 06:24

From: Mama

What is wrong with you, girl?

 

10-10-2017 06:30

From: Elizabeth

I was asleep. No time now. I moved out. Look for new tenants. Flat is empty and clean. Try Lydia.

 

10-10-2017 06:34

From: Mama

Lydia is much too young for that sort of thing!

 

10-10-2017 06:36

From: Elizabeth

She is five years older than I was when I started living on my own.

 

10-10-2017 06:38

From: Mama

Where are you, you wretched girl!?

 

10-10-2017 06:41

From: Elizabeth

Home, Mama. I'm home.

 

1 Unanswered call: Mama, 06:43

 

10-10-2017 06:50

From: Mama

Pick up, Elizabeth

 

10-10-2017 06:55

From: Elizabeth

Mama, I have more important things to do today. I am fine, Mina is fine, everything is fine. We've moved. You are all welcome to visit for Christmas. William says Lambton is spectacular at that time of the year.

 

10-10-2017 06:57

From: Mama

Don't tell me you went back to HIM.

 

10-10-2017 06:59

From: Elizabeth

OK, fine. I'm not telling you. But now I have to go downstairs and make sure both of my daughters are ready for the next school day.

 

####

 

10-10-2017 10:11

From: William

Unfortunately, it seems like someone is trying to make it hard for me to be home on time tonight. The Historical Society should be called the Hysterical Society. They are shouting.

 

10-10-2017 10:15

From: Elizabeth

Would my presence help, or quite to the contrary? I could be there if you wished, just send me the address.

 

10-10-2017 10:20

From: William

I would welcome it, but the workers are rather crude today. I'm making sure they know we're not reducing their pay. Not their fault, and they were on time both yesterday and today. I'm just taking the list to ensure they are all paid appropriately and I'm off to the society again. Need to find out who got them so fired up.

 

10-10-2017 10:21

From: William

There is a full protest line of little old ladies in front of the gate. Terrifying.

 

10-10-2017 10:25

From: Elizabeth

If you feel at any moment that my presence would help, let me know immediately. I'm picking the girls up anyway today, they need some shopping done. I could bring you coffee and lunch?

 

10-10-2017 10:30

From: William

That *does* sound tempting. I'll text you if the things start getting too hard. Thank you, love.

 

10-10-2017 10:32

From: Elizabeth

:*

 

10-10-2017 10:34

From: William

Kissy emoticons, Elizabeth? I didn't think serious computer programmers like you used these.

 

10-10-2017 10:38

From: Elizabeth

Oh, sometimes we hide them in the code just to be annoying. Now, go, pacify the hysterical society. I'm off to discuss placement of our stuff with Mrs R. It's a good thing she likes me, I will be seeing her a lot in the next days.

 

10-10-2017 10:40

From: William

Should I prepare myself for periods of abandonment?

 

10-10-2017 10:45

From: Elizabeth

I will always come back to you at the end, love.

 

####

 

They managed to muddle through the next several periods with the enthusiastic support of their main group, who took delight in hearing their explanation (and seeing the dumbfounded faces of the teachers, who had apparently treated the headmaster's warning less than seriously). After the third round, the role of the storyteller was taken over by Marika, who self-deprecatingly described how Mina had had them all fooled, even people who had known Rose since the pre-school days.

"And _including_ her dad and aunt," she added. "So, basically, the theatre club is waiting for you, Miss Darcy."

"I think I'll have enough on my shoulders for now," Mina rolled her eyes. "I mean, we have to undo all these grades, take all the tests..."

"...make the poster..."

"...take our physicals, get to know my Italian group..."

"...start my riding practice, my horse is, like, **fat**..."

"...practice my singing..."

"OK, OK, **fine**!" Marika threw her hands up. "Fine. No theatre for you this year. But please, consider it, both of you. You managed to keep this up that long, you'll be OK for a play or two."

"Now, if you are all _done_ , can we start the actual lesson?" the teacher sounded more amused than anything else, but everyone hurried to their places, leaving the twins by the desk used by Mina until now.

"Mr Farlane warned me about the _situation_. I am not happy with the fact that you had been put in the same group, but I accept his reasoning. It would have been tough and unfair to one of you to do it differently. Mina, sit at the desk you had been using, and Rose, here, in front of me. Just take the notes today. Next week, I'll have some tests ready for you, same as other teachers, I suppose, so you will have a chance to prepare and pass them successfully. I will write a letter to your father..."

"Our parents," Rose interrupted her softly, but clearly. That particular teacher had been one of the women who had tried to pass her contact information through her to Dad.

"Oh," the lady frowned and pursed her lips.

_Hah. Finally, all these cats will see that Dad is so taken._

The lesson continued with small hiccups, as the teacher was watching them with suspicion every time she noticed one of them even moving. Still, even the longest hour ends and so all the nervous tension was broken by the bell. In the company of Marika and Tatiana, they quickly walked into the courtyard, to sit in shade and finally check what Mrs Reynolds had managed to prepare for them. Before they reached the bench, however, Mina tripped over her own feet and went crashing down on the grass.

"Are you OK?" Rose picked her up and started dusting her off. "Did you skin your knees? God, your knees are _green_. You have to wash that grass off, to see if the skin isn't broken."

Mina breathed deeply and shook her head.

"No, I'm fine. Fine. I just hope I can avoid having huge bruises on my elbows for the contest. God, I was so nervous about this whole day, I barely slept and now I'm feeling... woozy."

"Come on, let's eat something. Or you'll faint and Mom will be angry with me."

"Darcy?"

" _Oh God,_ " Mina managed to whisper before they turned slowly. "Hi, Teddy."

He blinked, in a rather adorably confused way.

"I've heard some blokes talking about, but..." he shook his head. "What the hell, Darcy?"

"Which one are you asking?" Rose stepped closer and in front of her sister. "Hi, Strickland."

"So it's true," he swallowed, his Adam's apple bobbing furiously. "Wow. There are... two of you. Wow."

"Oh, come on, Rose," Mina managed to shove her out of the way. "Teddy, can we talk? Like, somewhere more private? After school today?"

"How do I know which one I'd be talking to?" he asked and they looked at each other in trepidation.

####

 _Oh, God. Actually two of them. Real life twins._ _**The Darcy twins** _ _._

He breathed deeply and tried to calm his thoughts, looking a bit away from them. School fence, so fascinatingly… rusty.

"And which one are you interested in?" one of them asked. "Because maybe you always fancied me, with my horses and long hair and basketball? Or maybe you just woke up to the new reality after the vacation and you prefer my sister - the one who sings, plays the piano and hits bullies?"

For a moment, he felt as if he had stepped onto a peak, a precipice, a...

"Strickland, what the hell are you doing here?" Davison, the rugby team captain, pulled him around. "Ah. I see. Your _girlfriend_ and... _your girlfriend_. You dog. Wow. But, if I may advise - pick the cleaner one. On the other hand, the dirty one will know how to get rid of grass stains. I suppose she has a lot of experience washing her clothes after kneeling in various places, so she will be of more use washing your unif..."

The students gathered around were very enthusiastic witnesses to the fact that Darcy girls did, in fact, hit. And that even rugby captains bled if hit hard enough.

Three seconds later, Davison was sitting flat on his arse on the grass, holding his mouth and wailing (albeit not very clearly), Teddy was cradling one Darcy's bruised fist in his both hands and Marika and Tatiana were holding the second one to stop her from adding something to what her sister had already done.

In half a minute, an oncoming storm of grown-ups darkened the schoolyard and the previously enthusiastic witnesses quickly decided that they had, in fact, been checking their snapchat, sending someone a text, picking lettuce out of their sandwich, looking for a lost contact lens or snogging behind a tree. There was nobody to explain what had happened except for Davison (now blubbering and babbling something and dripping crimson all over his rugby shirt), Teddy (now slightly grinning at the Darcy in front of him, like an idiot), her (very carefully _not_ looking up at him) and the other three girls (standing petrified three steps behind the pair).

"Now can anyone explain to me why our rugby captain had been injured outside of the field? We are more used to rugby players being damaged in the limitations set by the rules of the game."

"I..."

"I'm afraid it's my fault, sir" Teddy straightened, cutting her off quickly. "Davison was being disrespectful towards other students, and my experience with him told me that nothing less than a physical argument would work in that case."

Headmaster Farlane shot him a squinty-eyed look and Teddy steeled his spine a bit more.

"What _exactly_ had happened here?"

"Davison suggested I'm unable to wash my uniforms properly by myself and directed me to apply to Darcy for help, suggesting she must have a lot of experience getting rid of grass stains. He was referring to the fact that she had tripped just a moment before and had landed on her knees in the grass. He had suggested she had done this numerous times before and so she would be able to help me, with her extensive knowledge on the subject."

Teddy felt the headmaster's heavy gaze on his face but only stared resolutely ahead.

"Strickland," he heard the man say. "I hope it was worth it."

"I suppose so, sir."

"Please have one of your parents contact me today evening. Tomorrow you will have detention - and the next two days, too. You will write a four-page explanation of the role of non-violent conflict resolution in the relationships in the school and explain various ways this situation could have been managed better. Davison," he turned to the team captain "go to the nurse, get this face looked at and get your parents to call me today. You have three-day detention, the same as Strickland. You will write a two-pager regarding the definition of sexual harassment, lewd language and improper advances and why such behaviour is not allowed in this school. With references to the relevant entries in the school charter. You will both hand them in on Monday to your form tutor. Ladies," he nodded at the three, and then raised his eyebrows at the fourth one, still standing next to Teddy, hiding her hand behind her back. "Darcy, get this hand attended to. By the way," he turned to the man next to him "do we have plans for a girl rugby team, coach?"

#

The moment the headmaster entered the school, followed by the P.E. teacher and the rugby coach, the schoolyard exploded. There were people running around, sharing recordings of the whole altercation, pointing out Teddy and the girls, pointing out Davison (who had just noticed that his whole front had been liberally splashed with blood and was making noises about _that_ ) or trying to sneak in closer to listen in on the small, quiet exchange in the eye of the storm.

#

"Teddy, I..." she swallowed and looked away from him. "You shouldn't have done that."

"It would have been the second offence for you. Davison's parents would be calling for a suspension. His mother is that crazy kind of mama-bear, never mind she is half a head shorter than that idiot. He is her perfect Jamie and no person should dare touch him, no matter the reason. She even managed to complain once when he had been tackled on the field. The coach had a very bad afternoon."

"But, Teddy, that doesn't make sense! It should have been me...! I can take a little punishment, and this isn't _fair_!" her frustration was obvious and a bit surprising.

"I would have hit him, too, but you were just a tiny bit faster. That was mostly because I was mainly paying attention to you and kind of thinking about the question that your sister had asked me."

"Oh," she looked at him - these golden eyes! - and then down again. "And?"

He stretched her bruised fingers in his palm.

"I will have an answer for you - for her - but I just have one little question of my own," he said, with just a hint of tease in his voice, which was probably what made her look up so sharply. "What is your name? Because that," he nodded towards the other twin "is most definitely Rose Darcy. Considering I had no idea she had a sister..."

"Neither had I, until July," Rose mumbled.

"...I'd like to learn _your_ name."

She blinked. Blushed. Stammered.

"She's Mina," Rose finally sighed. "Wilhelmina Darcy, but she will hit you if you call her that, yadda, yadda. Can we _please_ eat that lunch finally?! I'm starving!"

 _Mina. OK, Mina._ _**Wilhelmina.** _

He smiled and nodded, not looking at Rose at all, but rather at the girl whose hand was still somehow engulfed in his.

"So, _Wilhelmina_ Darcy. What would you say if I asked if I can walk you to the bus today after school?"

Mina shook her head and sighed.

"I'd say that our mother is picking us up today. She says we need to go shopping. And we need to go home without any delays because we have all these grades to correct."

_Of course. Probably all teachers will be pretty hard on them now..._

He smiled and threaded her fingers between his, squeezing them lightly.

"I could tutor you if you need help with something specific. I _am_ a year older, after all. I've already done whatever it is that you're taking now and I _am_ in top three of my class."

"Teddy," she pursed her lips, looking away from him and snatching her hand away. "I'm sorry. No, not until the competition at least. I've been stuck in a strange place for the last month, sick for the last week and I didn't sleep very well tonight. I will be happy to continue this conversation in two weeks' time."

He frowned, looking at her in surprise.

"But I thought you wanted to talk today..."

"Yes, but now I see it will require a bit more time than I expected. At least we did the basic civilised thing - you know my name now. So," she stood on her tiptoes and pressed a kiss to his cheek. "After the competition, Teddy. I promise. And _thank you_."

She turned on her heel and joined her sister on the bench by the back wall, quickly digging out her lunch box and bottle of water.

The spot where her lips were pressed just a moment before now tingled faintly.

_Oh._

He touched it with his fingertips.

_So this is what it feels like._

####

"Anything interesting happened today?"

Both girls seemed strangely pensive as they seated themselves and buckled the seatbelts.

Mina shrugged and looked out of the window. Elizabeth raised an eyebrow at Rose.

_If it's a secret, she won't say, but..._

"She told Teddy she isn't going to talk to him until after the competition," her older daughter provided.

"Rose!"

"What? Half of the yard heard it."

"Well, maybe, but...!"

"Mina, was it really in public?"

A suffering sigh was the answer.

"About forty people in total," Rose explained. "And then she kissed him."

Mina groaned.

"Just on the cheek!"

"Well, he looked very happy..."

"Rose, stop," Elizabeth snapped. "Mina is embarrassed. Whatever it was, it is complicated, right?"

Mina grunted a confirmation.

"Teddy couldn't work out which one of us he fancies," Rose explained. "Then he made up his mind, but an idiot from his rugby team had to try to intervene and ended up with a bloody lip. Teddy and the idiot got three days of detention and Mina told Teddy she wants to talk to him, but only after the competition. Then she kissed him and avoided him for the rest of the day, but now she is having an attack of regrets that she had treated him too harshly."

Elizabeth parked in front of the mall and turned back to them.

"What do you mean? Mina, what happe..."

Mina's knuckles, exposed by Rose in front of Elizabeth's nose, were covered by a wide plaster.

"Oh, kitten!"

"And Teddy took it on himself," Rose added as Mina watched the world outside through the tinted windows stubbornly. "He said that Mina has already had one problem this year so she can't have another so soon, and mother of that boy is a nightmare."

"I thought this school was _better,_ " Mina whispered suddenly. "And nobody is really _better_. They just hide better."

"Davison is an exception. Everyone else would have reacted to what he said, somehow. Well, not everyone would have bloodied his mouth, but they'd have silenced him. And Teddy is OK, isn't he?"

Mina shrugged and looked determinedly out of the window.

"What _did_ said Davison actually say?" Elizabeth looked at each in turn.

"He said Teddy had now two girlfriends, but he should choose me because I probably know better how to get rid of grass stains, so I could wash his rugby uniforms. And only because I tripped and got my socks all green and dirty."

"Well, what he actually said was that he was sure Mina has had a lot of experience in _kneeling_. If you know what I mean."

Elizabeth swallowed a curse.

"Yh. That's nasty. How old is that boy exactly?"

"Teddy's age, so maybe a year or so older than us."

"I'll discuss it with your father, but I think I'd like to speak to his parents. Just to head off potential explanations of 'it was only a joke'. Because I see some risk of that kind of 'justification'. He didn't come out and say that Mina is somehow bad, or immoral. He more like tested what was acceptable to say, right?"

Rose nodded.

"He saw that she had green spots on her knees from where she tripped, and just..." she gestured. "He used to be more like a human being, but his father took him somewhere for a 'dad-son trip' and now he is like _that_. His ex told Marika and Marika told me that he used to be quite OK, but after that trip it's like someone flipped some switches and he's become insufferable. Sheila told him to leave her alone after he had spouted some stupidity about her not needing to go to college because it's enough that she is pretty. And he was rather insistent about it, but then his parents turned it all into a joke, so, yeah, there is that joke thing. Well, Sheila's mom says it's not funny at all and she is going to be coming to school pretty soon."

"Good for Sheila. I wish there had been someone like this in _our_ family at the right time. Anyway, let's go inside and check if we can buy a reasonable amount of clothes for you in the minimum of time. And, Mina?"

"Yes, Mom" she sighed.

"Please _do_ try not to hit anyone else before Christmas?"

"Fine, fine" she grumbled, turning towards the window again. "I'll just bite the next one."

####

The afternoon was spent split between unpacking (mostly covered by Mom, but sometimes requiring their attention), preparing all school supplies for Mina, signing the notebooks and filling in the Italian exercise book up to the point assigned by the teacher, which marked the progress the class had made since the beginning of the year.

Rose was happily filling in her _French_ book - new and fresh one, instead of using the one that Mina had started.

Mom was... Mom was _humming_. And dancing between rooms.

They exchanged a few glances when she dropped into their rooms, leaving a random possession of Mina's that had been packed among her things every now and then and then leaving. With a pirouette.

"Break!" she announced finally and they stood up with twin groans of relief. "Now, Mina's boxes. They may contain some of my stuff - considering there were so many of your things in my boxes... so just leave it on my bed, OK? I'll go downstairs and negotiate with Mrs Reynolds for access to the kitchen."

They both looked up in interest.

"Cookies," she said succinctly. "How many people do you have in your class?"

Rose frowned.

"Thirty in our homeroom, which is more or less the class that we see for the whole day - except for languages and P.E."

"OK, so I suppose the batch should be bigger..." Mom smiled and pulled out her tablet. "Come on, get to work. I'll call you once everything is set up."

As she danced away, towards the stairs, Rose looked at her younger sister questioningly.

"It's your birthday tomorrow, you ninny" Mina pointed out kindly. "Mom wants us to bake cookies for you. Now, come on, let's move. We have stuff to unpack."

"Cookies...?" Rose shook her head. "But..."

"I told you. That's what Mom does for _my_ birthday. So she will be doing it for yours, too."

"But nobody brings cookies to class...!"

Mina rolled her eyes.

"I would. I'm going to ask Mom for the really chewy, caramel ones. This will make everyone shut up."

"But..."

"No buts. Darcy girls may not have had a tradition of bringing cookies to class until now, but from this summer, you're also a _Bennet_ girl. Or, to be more specific, you are _Elizabeth Bennet's_ daughter and that's _how we roll_."

####

Elizabeth knew they were suspicious, but simply couldn't make herself _stop_. It was a feeling that wanted to burst out in song, but she couldn't find the right one to express what she was so overwhelmed with.

 _Einmal m_ _öcht ich wieder tanzen_

_so wie damals im Mai_

_einen rechten, s_ _üßen Walzer,_

_wo das Herz ist dabei._

She twirled in another waltz pas and run downstairs.

"Ah, you look like someone who had won the lottery" Mrs Reynolds greeted her when she burst into the kitchen, all jittery and smiling. "What did that boy do? I suppose it was something _done right_ this time?"

"Well..." she reached for the box holding her big mixer. "We may be needing a bit of a help with certain preparations for the eleventh of November."

"Like what kind of preparations?"

They opened the box and pulled out the gleaming machine.

"Like maybe a lot of space in the fridge to cool a wedding cake...?" Elizabeth smiled slyly and ducked her head when the older woman rushed in to hug her.

"Oh, darling! But, so quickly?"

"Quickly? It's been over fourteen years since he proposed!"

"Elizabeth!"

"Well, yes. A bit quickly, maybe. But none of us is a silly kid anymore and we _know_ what we want."

"Oh, I dare say you do, definitely" Mrs Reynolds snorted. "Just make sure nobody tells the little ones anything stupid, like that you had to hurry because of, you know. _Things_."

"We are definitely not hurrying because of _things_. We just want this over with, I want to change my surname, I want to finally do what I wanted to all that time..." Elizabeth trailed off and blushed hotly. "Um."

"I'm older than you, girl. I've had my share of romance, even if Mr Reynolds had been taken away from me too early. Now, what is it that you wanted to do here?"

"Cookies. Rose's birthday is tomorrow, so I need to prepare a batch for her to take to school. We'll make more for Mina tomorrow..." she clicked through her recipe book. "Ah. Here. Lemon sables. Quick, easy and I can only hope nobody at school is wildly allergic to anything in here."

#

"Now, crack four eggs and pour them into this container. Then take the butter and put it in the mixer with the sugar, and mix it at top speed until it's all light and fluffy. I'll sift the flour and Mina will grate the lemon rind. Just try to not make it 'the bloody lemon rind', kitten, hm?"

"Mom! It was, like, six years ago!"

"And I hope you still remember how it stings."

"How did you manage to do this?"

"She scraped her knuckles on the grater. There was a huge amount of screaming and a tiny amount of blood involved."

"Mom!"

"I'm sure Dad will find equally silly stories of Rose to tell us" she kissed her younger daughter's cheek. "Now, once you are done with the rind, squeeze the lemons and fish out any pips, we'll make the icing."

The whirl of the mixer filled the kitchen with weird echoes as they worked around the grand table so they never heard the footsteps approaching them until Mina squeaked in surprise at William's fingers catching her carefully dressed hand.

"I thought I told you how to do it properly," he remarked mildly.

"I did. I didn't tuck in my thumb, so it isn't like it's _broken_. But the guy was too tall and I hit his teeth instead of his _nose_."

"Mina! You never told me…"

"It's fine! The nurse at school cleaned it and she said the skin isn't broken."

William sighed and ruffled her hair a bit.

"And what about your knight on a white horse? Should I be concerned?"

"Dad!"

"She told Teddy she will talk to him after the competition" Rose licked her fingers clean of sugar. "Is this fluffy enough?"

"No, darling, take the bowl out, take the spatula and scrape the sides, fold it all together and then start mixing again, like for three minutes. Repeat until you can't see any sugar crystals."

"Why do you want to wait until after the competition?" William patted Mina's hand and leaned over her to kiss Elizabeth's cheek.

Mina made a frustrated sound.

"Because. OK? It's like… I don't want to make any…" she threw her hands up. "I mean, it's like Rose said. I shouldn't just, well, make a decision, just because almost every bloke in my London school was a massive jerk and Teddy is just being nice. And then he seemed much better than them, in contrast. And now he is kind of more than nice and then I don't want to make any stupid decision just because I think I _owe_ him. But I _like_ him."

Elizabeth dusted her hands off and finally looked very carefully at her younger child.

"So you like him, but you don't want to owe him…?"

"No! I mean, no, I didn't want him to do what he did today - I never asked him, or anything. But it's like…" Mina twisted her hands together. "Like I want to be sure I like him even if he is not being all kind and attentive and taking a three-day detention for me. I want to like him because I like him and _not_ because I feel I should be grateful."

"My darling, reasonable girl" Elizabeth hugged her. "I understand, definitely. But, may I remind you, this very morning, at breakfast, you were worried about his feelings even _before_ you saw him again after over a week. So I'd say we can be pretty sure whatever it is, it's not affected by his intervention today - or at least not _caused_ by it, hm?"

Mina nodded, leaning on her shoulder.

"So, if you really wish to test yourself, by all means, take your two weeks and think about it. There is no reason to rush into stuff you don't feel very certain about. However, don't be cruel and don't string him along. If you make up your mind and you don't want to… whatever it is, tell him kindly. And quickly."

William cleared his throat and she sighed.

"Come here" she pulled him closer.

#

The cookie cutters were found, washed, dried and dusted with flour, three workstations were set on the table, covered with large, smooth cutting boards and three aprons were tied carefully.

"Now, I've rolled the dough flat, but…" Elizabeth pulled out a plastic container. "Rose? Your choice of patterns."

Her older daughter frowned, not understanding.

"Patterns?"

"Look" Mina pulled out a patterned rolling pin. "See? It has patterns. Mom has like two dozen of them…"

"Eighteen!"

"...a dozen and a half, I stand corrected. So you can choose doggies, little skulls, flowers, cats, fish, stars, more flowers… some more flowers… birds, Moomins and Little My's, balloons… whatever."

Rose was pulling the rollers one by one and carefully placing them in a row on the table.

"May I have more than one pattern?" she asked worriedly.

"As many as we have batches of cookies, kitten" Elizabeth ruffled her hair. "That means at least six. And you can choose the cutters to match them - I think I have a box of Moomin ones somewhere. You could have cookies _shaped_ like a Little My and _patterned_ with Little My if you want. Or cat-shaped and patterned with dogs."

William's arms went around her waist and she leaned back into his embrace.

"And what kind of cookies will _I_ get for my birthday, to take to work with me?" he whispered, sending a little shiver down her spine with his breath brushing her ear.

"William!"

"Well, I want to know if it will be worth being good until January."

"Oh, you will be good until January, don't you worry," she said sternly. "Or you will be _sorry_."

"Oh? Will you betray your holy vow to never bake bad cookies?"

"I will bake some with anise. Ani liquorice."

She felt him shudder with revulsion.

"You wouldn't! You hate liquorice just as I do!"

"They would be perfectly good cookies - for someone who likes liquorice, that is."

"I will be good! I promise!"

She turned in his arms and gave him a small kiss.

"Then you'll have chocolate shortbread cut up into little houses" she smiled. "Deal?"

He sighed, putting all his suffering in that sigh.

"Fine" he grumbled, burying his face in the crook of her neck. "Deal."

"Now…" she shoved him a bit. "Cut the cookies, children. Wash your hands again and I will roll the dough in that time. Rose? Did you make your choice? Yes, William, _you too_. No idea what you were doing with them, we don't want that to transfer to the cookies. Wash your hands, William Darcy!"

#

A phone rang in the hall as Elizabeth was hurrying past with the last batch of things destined to the attic, so she propped the box on her hip, leaned it on the wall and picked the receiver.

"Pemberley House, how can I help you?"

"Ah" a male voice stammered at her introduction. "I'm sorry. I was… No, wait. I wanted to talk to William. Sorry, for a moment I thought I got the wrong house, but then you said…"

"Rick" she swallowed, hard.

"Liz? Lizbeth? Is that _you_?"

"Yeah. I'm… It's me."

She heard him laugh softly into the receiver.

"Good, good. Oh, Lord, Lizbeth, I mean… How long has it been?"

"Thirteen years this weekend, Rick. I'm so sorry."

"Come on. Half of this is on William being a prick."

"Richard Fitzwilliam!"

"...and halt on aunt Catherine for being a witch. I'd blame you for, like, ten percent of this. Hell, I take some on me, for not making William behave like a proper human being."

"You had your problems, Richard. I can't allow…"

"Everyone had problems, all the time. That doesn't excuse any of us. Now, two ques… no, three."

She sighed and smiled.

"Ask away."

"Are you staying? Did you bring Mina? When can I come to visit?"

"Oh, Richard. If it didn't make William so unreasonably jealous…" she trailed off, seeing William standing at the top of the stairs, his arms folded on his chest, smirking slightly. "Yh."

"He is there, listening to you, isn't he?"

"Yep."

"Answer with one word then."

"Yes, Yes, Soon?"

"Will be there. When are you two tying the knot?"

"Rick!"

"OK, when do you want me there?"

"Mina has a singing competition next weekend, on Saturday. Would that be OK for you?"

"Will be there, no doubt. Text me the place and the exact time. Now, can I talk to my cousin and congratulate him on regaining his senses?"

"Richard! You will do no such…"

The receiver was snatched from her hand and William's kiss muffled her next words.

"Now, go and help them to not burn the house down," he said, breathlessly. "And please, leave the heavy lifting to me and please, stop flirting with my most annoying cousin."

" _...I heard that!_ " the receiver squeaked.

"You were _meant_ to" William pulled her in again and deposited another kiss on her lips. "Go. Leave that bloody box here! I will take it upstairs! Now, Richard, why are you bothering my Lizzy?"

 

####

 

The large Tupperware container was met with signs of disbelief.

"You baked this?" Sebastien poked a round cookie suspiciously.

"Yes, for the tenth time. Mom, Dad, Mina and me. It's one of Mom's favourite recipes. Seriously, people, hadn't you ever seen a cookie?"

Tatiana bit into one cautiously (biting off the head of one Little My) and licked the crumbs off her fingers.

"Gosh, this is actually pretty good," she mumbled around a mouthful of pastry. "Really, Rosie, your mother has some wicked skills. I wish my mom could bake like this" she finished the rest of the cookie. "On the other hand, I get fat by simply breathing in the general vicinity of a pastry shop, so I’d be as big as a house if mom ever took up baking."

"So, this is what, the new regime, introduced by your mother? I, for one, welcome our new cookie overlords," Damien snatched a star and saluted them with it.

"Yeah. If she needs someone to, like, wash the windows, or mow the lawn…" one of the boys mused, licking the icing off his palm.

"Idiot," Damien said amiably. "Haven’t you seen their house? Their dad hires a whole team to deal with the greenery, and I suppose washing the windows in that old pile requires one to have a degree in wood conservation or something."

"Mostly it requires having much longer arms," Mina remarked idly. "Even opening the stupid things is a challenge if someone is too short."

"Um," Maire wiped her hand with a wet wipe and was now looking at Mina curiously. "I mean. Not that I complain, these are some fine cookies, but why are they only _Rose's_ cookies?"

Mina sighed.

"Because she was born fifteen minutes earlier, which was before midnight" she explained, poking her sister in the shoulder. "Old woman."

"Feckless youngster!" Rose poked her back.

"So, are _you_ bringing _another_ batch of cookies tomorrow?" Damien was the first to understand the implication.

"I hope so," Mina smiled. "Mom was already preparing chocolate to be chopped when we were leaving."

"Chocolate," Tatiana shuddered. "I'll have to live on lettuce for a month because of the two of you."

"Nobody forces you to eat them," Rose pointed out loftily.

"Reality forces me! The smell forces me! The icing... the cute little cutout shapes!"

"You simply have the hidden dirty need to bite off Little My's leg, admit it."

"Absolutely!"

They never noticed someone taking a step back and retreating to hide behind the nearest corner.

 

#

 

The music classroom was empty when Mina sneaked into it. She felt a twinge of guilt - Teddy should have been here, too, waiting for Miss Yang to check on his breathing technique - or whatever it was that he was getting corrected now - but the schedule on the door pronounced him as being moved to a later hour. She was alone then, as no other student had been moved to replace him. She quickly dumped her backpack on one of the desks and, using the opportunity, sat down at the piano. There were some music sheets spread on the stand, but it wasn't anything she knew. Still, it looked reasonably simple, so she started picking her way through it. As she paused to turn the page, she heard slow, soft clapping from the door and turned, surprised, to see Miss Yang standing there.

"Ah, I'm... I'm sorry, Miss. But I..."

"No, no. Don't worry. I suppose you are _not_ Rose Darcy then?"

She stood up quickly, straightening her skirt.

"No, Miss. Mina Darcy. Well, it will be Darcy soon, so Dad just asked for us to be enrolled like this..."

"Very well, _Mina_. Can you explain the situation to me? I mean, in the context of the competition mainly, I don't really care for any complex family machinations, just tell me - which one of you will be singing for real?"

"That would be me."

"And it will still be Loch Lomond?

"I suppose so."

"Fine, fine. Rose wouldn't be willing to join you?"

"Not sure, but I don't think she would. This I'm doing on my own."

"Very well. Single, traditional... a capella, as everyone," Miss Yang sighed.

"Why aren't we going to have accompaniment?"

"The piano in the auditorium is broken - the soundboard got warped due to over... Never mind. The thing is, we can't move any of these pianos from here, because there is no lift available to take them downstairs."

Mina frowned.

"Wouldn't it be better to have accompaniment?" she asked finally.

"A lot! But until we fix the main pianoforte, there will be either playback from the CDs or a capella singing, and we don't have the instrumental for everyone, so to remove unfair advantage..."

Mina frowned.

"I..."

No, she couldn't promise Miss Yang anything before she asked Mom for it.

"Never mind, we'll make do. I know you were sick, but maybe just one time?"

"Mom said exactly that. She made me sing scales yesterday for just five minutes and she said I still have some mucus in my throat, so I'm supposed to not overdo it, but I can sing once, to see if I still remember how to do it properly."

"So, your mother is your singing teacher?" Miss Yang sat next to the pianoforte but didn't touch the keys. "And here comes the explanation of the sudden influx of talent in Rose, who had until now avoided music with rarely seen dedication."

"I've been having lessons since I was eight. Piano, too," Mina admitted. "Mom sings, plays the piano and the guitar. I was supposed to start the guitar this year, but because of that whole thing with us switching..."

"But you will be doing it, at some point?" Miss Yang's eyes narrowed. "Or is your mother too busy with... whatever it is that is happening?"

"I suppose once we settle in, I will" she sighed. "But there is so much to do! We still have to correct our grades and write so many assignments my hands hurt at the thought of it!"

The teacher smiled.

"When you do try, please let me know if there is anything you need. I have some songbooks that you could choose from if you wish to practise. And you can come here in your free periods if there is nobody else on the roster and practise."

Mina nodded.

"Now, let's have one run through, to check how bad it is" Miss Yang smiled.

 

#

 

When they were done and Miss Yang had pointed out a place or two where she could have sung a bit more fluidly, she put Mina to practising on one of the pianos - "You shouldn't sing any more, but your fingers aren't coughing" - and busied herself with re-ordering the mess of music sheets that had been spilt out of their binding and were now an untidy heap on one of the desks.

"Very nice, Mina. Would you consider taking part in the Christmas concert? We should have the main piano repaired by that time - or have one of the others moved. There would be some singing, a choir maybe, some of the smaller kids with a short Nativity play... having someone just play one of the carols on the piano may be a nice addition."

Mina frowned.

"I'd rather sing," she said slowly. "I mean, I can learn - I know how to play a few carols already, Mom started with them, in fact - but if I had to choose, I'd prefer to sing."

"You could do both," aunt Georgiana's voice from the door interrupted them. "You don't have to limit yourself and hide your talents, Mina. It's not like we'll have you choose, you know."

Miss Yang turned towards the intruder and froze.

"Ah, so, this is your _mother_ , Mina?"

Georgiana giggled.

"No way. I'm her aunt. Going home from the town right now, so I am the designated driver, as otherwise, they'd have to wait for the bus for an additional half hour. And who knows what these two would manage to _do_ in half an hour."

"Aunt G!" Rose's voice rang from the corridor.

"You know that I know that you know you'd be up to something in no time at all. Georgiana Darcy" she extended her hand to the teacher.

"Lucy... Lucy Yang," the shorter woman found her voice. "Music teacher."

Their hands clasped and they smiled at the same time.

"Thank you for taking care of Mina," Georgiana managed to say finally. "It is a bit of a challenge to find the new normal with these two."

"I will have to change the competition entry now – all the paperwork!" Miss Yang joked. "Or force Rose to step up!"

"What?!"

"Calm down, Rosie," Mina scoffed. "I _want_ to sing. You don't have to."

"Good."

Rose was a first-class grumbler if she wanted.

"I've heard the part about the Christmas concert," aunt Georgiana explained. "Would you need any help with that?"

"There is always some part that the parents - or caregivers - can help with, costumes..." Miss Yang busied herself with the scores she had been trying to put in order.

"No, I mean, with the concert itself. I have musical training, you see. And I do have a harp," Aunt Georgiana smiled slightly when Miss Yang turned quickly.

"A _harp_?"

"And I can play it. I could practise with Mina and we could play something instrumental together. I can't promise more than one or two pieces, as we won't have time to practise properly for more, but maybe you'd be happy with the novelty?"

Miss Yang looked... flustered.

"A harp, really," she said in a very surprised voice. "I tried to learn, once, but I gave up after half a year - I couldn't relax and my fingers were too short. Somehow they are just fine for the piano, but..." she turned her hand palm up.

"Ah, I see," aunt Georgiana made a sympathetic sound. "They always told me I had pianist's hands," she put her long-fingered palm next to the teacher's shorter ones "so they put me on the harp, too, saying it would be much easier for me than for other children."

Miss Yang turned their aunt's hand palm down and nodded, smiling.

"That is what I call unfair advantage" she sighed. "I can barely play a guitar comfortably! And here you are, with hands like that...!"

Mina waited for a moment as the two stood there in silence, but finally she coughed softly.

"Ah, sorry," Miss Yang shook her head. "Long day, I'm woolgathering. Thank you for the offer - please make some choice with Mina, if you wish to play together - maybe more than two pieces, and we'll choose together from these so that you don't repeat whatever the choir would be singing. I will be coordinating with the choir mistress, to make sure we have it all correctly aligned."

"Of course" aunt Georgiana smiled and nodded to Mina. "Come on. You two have a lot to do today."

 

#

 

Between homework, catching up with missed assignments, the poster (finished, with Dad's input the day before and Mom's oversight now), the stable work (which was more fun with two, but still rather disgusting), some more unpacking and running up to the attic with stuff to be stored until spring, they barely noticed when the evening had set and aunt Georgiana came upstairs to collect them for supper. Having finished the meal (Dad was still absent, apparently dealing now with a drainage problem on a site near Matlock), they gathered their plates and went downstairs, where the whole setup was already waiting for them.

"Your choice, kitten" Mom handed her the boxes of pins and Mina deftly fished out her favourites - the cats, the umbrellas and the paisleys.

"And round cutters" she added immediately. "No shapes, I just want the patterns and round cookies."

"Very well. Just rounds. I hope they will keep the shape because they are seriously chocolate-y. I replaced part of the butter with baking chocolate."

Mina swallowed hungrily, despite being quite full.

"No eating the raw dough" Mom raised her finger. "Now, put the plates in the dishwasher, wash your hands, put the aprons on and let's start cutting!"

Aunt Georgiana was placed at the board next to Mina and Rose on the other side, with Mom.

"I've rolled the dough already flat, and chilled it a bit more, because it tends to go sticky" Mom explained, brandishing the pattern roller. "And the pattern wouldn't stay if I let it go too soft. Georgiana, you'll be doing umbrellas" she ran the roller carefully over the large expanse of dark paste in front of their aunt. "Rose and Mina, cats, and I'll do paisleys. Just cut as closely as possible, so we have less reworks later because we'll have to re-chill the dough each time."

She switched the oven on and they started cutting their cookies in silence, broken from time to time by a grunt or a quiet expletive when the cookie didn't want to leave the cutter obediently.

They carefully placed the first batch in the oven and watched as the cookies thankfully stayed in shape and kept the pretty raised pattern put on them by the pins.

"Very nice. Next two batches together and we'll switch the trays around after five minutes. And let me roll that chilled dough... It's not much, so I think you two can take care of it" she moved around the table, distributing the dough on two boards and rolling the pattern pins over the flat slabs. Mina came back to her station and looked at her piece in surprise. Instead of the cats, her piece was patterned with little hearts. She frowned, looking up at Mom, who shrugged with an innocent expression.

Mina picked up the cutter and noticed that the round shape was switched for...

"Mom" she whispered furiously. "Really?"

Rose peeked over her shoulder and snorted softly.

"He is all bone and muscle" she poked Mina in the ribs. "I suppose a few cookies won't hurt."

"Rose!"

"At least now he bulked up a bit. In the preschool, he was a bit pudgy, but then in the primary, he suddenly grew up and was something of a scarecrow. Kids used to make fun of him, saying that he was too skinny for a proper Teddy."

Mina huffed in annoyance and set to cutting the little hearts with precision, using the dough as economically as it was possible. It was Mom's good cutter, which allowed her to cut a row of alternating up-and-down hearts without much wastage between the shapes.

"I'll find you another, smaller box, kitten."

"But, Mom..."

"You don't _have_ to talk to him" Mom shook her head. "And you can eat all the cookies yourself if you'd rather. But won't it be nice to have _options_ , hm?"

Rose made a small sound of choking.

"And that will be enough from you, Miss Rose" Mom raised a finger at her. "If I hear one more remark from you about either Mina or Teddy, I will find a way to make you miserable for a week."

"But, Mom..." Rose _whined_. "It's just... so..." she gave a frustrated puff. "I just don't _get it_! It's Teddy! He's... so... so normal. Nothing interesting about him!"

"Well, thank God!" Mom took the cutting board to the sink to rinse it. "Imagine what kind of problems we'd have if the two of you fancied the same boy."

There was a momentary silence in the kitchen, as both Mina's and Rose's thoughts screeched to a halt.

"Uh" was the only thing Rose managed to say.

"Ick."

"Yeah. No. Definitely."

"Yuck."

Aunt Georgie snorted.

"You have broken them, Lizzy."

"But..." Rose scrunched her nose, bowing over her work. "It's not like I want _a boyfriend_. But..." she waved, as Mina watched her from over her own board, frowning. "I mean, we... I thought we'd be doing stuff together, now that you are living here! And if Teddy..."

_Oh._

Mina's cutter clattered to the floor.

_Oh, oh._

She was around the table before she even noticed, and hugging her sister ferociously.

"I'm not leaving you alone, stupid," she said into Rose's flour-dusted hair. "Stop being stupid, stupid."

Mom was asking something in the background, but they ignored her as Rose's hands went around Mina's back.

"Good" the older sister answered finally. "I... I never had _anyone_ and then you and then..."

 

####

 

The last batch - including the tray of hearts - was in the oven, under Georgiana's guard, the girls were shepherded upstairs to take a shower and pack for the next day and Elizabeth finally had a moment to sit down and think.

That could have gone much, much worse.

Of course Rose was jealous. That was what she had suspected, just a bit, ever since her older daughter had made the very first remark about Teddy. It just wasn't the direction Elizabeth had been suspecting. Considering, however, the whole situation, it was not really that much of a surprise that it wasn't that Rose wanted Teddy for herself - or was jealous of the general idea of Mina having a boy... whatever (Lizzy shied away from that thought). As a single kid, raised with no cousins, she wanted to have her sister to herself! Her _younger_ sister, as Rose tended to stress. Her younger sister, who had moved finally "back home", one she could teach stuff - horses, everything about the house, the town, the school. Rose had had only a month of sporadic contacts with her younger cousins (and that month had been spent in the state of considerable stress) so she had never experienced the normal, everyday presence of a younger relative. She wanted it, and she got a promise of it with Mina.

Only for Mina to be suddenly forming some other kind of human connection.

And for Rose to be suddenly left a bit behind.

She sighed.

Balancing that pair would never ever become easy.

Her phone buzzed.

 

WILLIAM

 

"Hi," she said softly.

"I'm on my way home" his voice was rough and tired, and there were sounds of a crowd around him. "Is there anything I should buy at the last minute? Anything the girls need for tomorrow that they only learnt about today?"

"Not to my knowledge, so just get yourself here as quickly as safely possible."

He waited for a moment in silence.

"Something wrong?"

_Ah. Love him._

"No. Just had a little blow-up in the kitchen. It cleared the atmosphere and I'm rather thankful for it, and for the fact that it happened sooner rather than later. It's just..." she was tangling her hand in her hair now. "There are aspects of having twins that I've never suspected."

"You have to tell me the whole story when I'm there. Twenty minutes."

"Do you need anything to eat? I'm sure..."

"I am ravenous" he admitted. "They kept me so angry for the whole day I couldn't eat, and now that the adrenaline is down..."

"Just come home before you fall asleep. Let me worry about everything else."

_Come home._

She licked her lips, trying the taste of it.

_Mmm._

"Will do" his voice went just a bit deeper - or was it her imagination?

"Waiting then."

 

#

 

After putting the leftover pasta, covered liberally with grated cheese and some butter, in the oven, she ran upstairs to check on the girls. Rose was brushing her teeth and Mina had already changed into her nightdress and was stuffing some books in her backpack.

"Five minutes exercise?" she asked and Mina's face brightened. "Position. Relax your jaw. Yawn. Relax your shoulders. And... Legato - Nya-nya-nyaaa..."

Rose stood in the door, watching them with her eyes wide, as she walked Mina through a small equivalent of vocal stretching.

"I still hear you have something stuck in your throat, mind you" she pointed out as Mina finished with the staccato round. "Good thing that song you picked doesn't have a lot of big intervals. You should do OK. Just, please, remember your limits..."

"No singing, no shouting, just one song tomorrow for Miss Yang."

"Quite so."

Rose was already sitting down on her bed and Elizabeth was by the door when Mina's "Ah, Mom?" stopped her.

"Mom, would it be possible to lend your piano to the school?"

She turned, not understanding.

"We're having the whole contest a capella, because the pianoforte in the auditorium is broken, and they can't get any of the school pianos downstairs. But your electric piano, it just requires to be carried in a bag, and you have that foldable stand, right...?"

She nodded.

"Ah, so for the competition? Sure, of course? Did someone ask for it?"

"They don't know you have it, and I didn't tell - you know, in case you _didn't_ want to volunteer it. Maybe you could come tomorrow with aunt Georgiana and talk to Miss Yang? She seemed interested in meeting you anyway, and aunt Georgie kind of promised we'd be in the Christmas concert, so I'd need you to help me prepare..."

She shook her head.

"I'll pick you up tomorrow and talk to Miss Yang, sure. Anything else?"

"Can you make our birthday cake with blackberry preserve?"

"We'll discuss your birthday cake tomorrow, young lady. Now, come here" she gathered Rose in her arms. "Happy birthday, again, kitten. And I'm glad you told us before it became worse."

"Me too" admitted her quieter daughter. "Also, I feel like an idiot."

"Don't. Feel like you're fourteen."

"Not yet, really."

"In three hours, give or take five minutes. Now, bed. Both of you! And don't even try to wait until midnight."

 

####

 

She was sitting in the kitchen, head on her folded arms on the table, hair falling out of the messy bun.

"Lizzy?" he shook her shoulder. "Liz? This is not a good place to sleep."

She looked absolutely adorable, freshly awoken and slightly dazed for her short nap.

"I didn't mean to--" she blinked a few times. "There is some pasta in the oven, should be nice and hot by now."

"Do you want some, too?"

She just shook her head and sniffed a bit.

"I'll just make tea. You want some?"

He pushed her back down, making her sit.

"Yes, and despite my other domestic failings, I do know how to prepare a pot. Sit. You've been on your feet for the whole day, judging by the stack of empty boxes in the hallway and the huge container of cookies waiting by the door for Mina."

"Cookies are mostly the girls' doing, but, yes, I'd love to just sit and let things happen to me. Like a cup of tea."

He brushed his fingers across her neck and listened to the adorable little sigh she gave.

_Note to self: stop using 'adorable' in my thoughts or I'll slip, say it aloud and then she'll hit me._

The kettle was burbling, his plate was full of penne, vegetables and cheese and there was a tiny, sleepy and tired woman sitting at his table. For a split second, he dithered whether it would be better to sit in front of her and watch her drink her tea or to sit next to her and...

Definitely next to her.

He pulled out the chair to her right and brought the tea tray to the table. Her quiet murmur of thanks as he poured a "more milk than tea" cup for her and her immediate closeness when he sat next to her with his plate made him a tiny bit warmer inside.

"So, what happened?" he asked, after spearing a few pieces of pasta with his fork.

"We found out what was bugging Rose," she said with a sigh. "I hope she will be able to just let Mina be after this. These two..."

He chewed for a moment.

"So, what was it?"

"Abandonment. She wants to play the big sister and she felt Mina was leaving her behind, what with her having that sudden interest in Teddy."

"Ah. I see."

"It was so surprising, over the cookies down here, it just went... kaboom. Small kaboom, but still."

"Are they OK now?"

She nodded and sipped her tea.

"But we should pay attention to make sure they are both taken care of in a proportionate way. We've been maybe a bit too focused on Mina - her illness, her finally officially moving here, school transfer, singing competition _and_ Teddy. Which is a new thing for me, by the way."

"Well, Rose hadn't noticed boys until now, not above discussing the shortcomings of her fellow riders or being snarky about some rugby players."

"This may be one of the reasons... and kind of also what Mina said at some point - she sees the local boys as much better than her old classmates, and Teddy is even more... interesting. And they have some things in common - singing, at least. But Rose grew up with these boys, and, well, familiarity breeds contempt."

"So she is spoilt, because she had always known boys that are actual thinking human beings?"

"And so she didn't understand why Mina would be suddenly interested in one of them. _And_ she felt abandoned by her little sister, just when she could have been playing The Big Sister and Take Care and everything. Suddenly Mina in having an experience Rose can't relate to."

"Complicated. Have you eaten any supper? You look ready to fall asleep where you sit."

"A toast. I was in the kitchen for the whole afternoon, trying to force the dough into submission."

"And how did it work?"

She snorted.

"I used up all the baking chocolate I had and we have two more rolls of dough in the freezer, for later. I wanted Mina to have cookies that would keep the shape and the first two batches went a bit wrong. I'll find some use for them, no worries. But I'm just so, so tired..."

"But it means you didn't eat?"

She grimaced.

"Too warm down here. It's only now becoming cool enough."

He caught a bit of a carrot and a piece of pasta with his fork.

"Open wide" he ordered and she looked up in confusion. "Do I have to make this an aeroplane, or will you just eat?"

She blinked slowly and opened her mouth obediently.

_I wish I had a bowl of fruit here, I could feed her..._

_Stop it, William._

Another bite.

She was warm, sleepy and close.

Another bite.

Good enough for now.

Another bite.

"If two weeks ago someone told you we'd be sitting here, like this, what would you say?"

Another bite.

"That unless he's a bloody djinn who can grant me three wishes, he should get out of my way and stop being an annoying git."

Another bite.

"Mhm," she murmured, her head on his shoulder.

"And you?"

"I'd call emergency services and tell them to collect a dangerous raving madman."

"And yet..."

"And yet, here we are."

"Complete nonsense."

"Absolutely crazy."

"I love you, just as you are. Nonsense and crazy included."

He felt her stiffen, just a bit.

"Elizabeth?"

She raised her head from his shoulder and looked up at him.

"I love you, too," she said quietly.

"Ah, Liz..."

"Mmm. It feels _good_ to finally say it."

"It feels nice to hear it, but I'm sure we've said it already, several times..." he frowned.

"No. We’ve used 'love' as an endearment, but never, well, said 'the three words'. Well, not in the last week, at least."

"Really?" he raised his brows at her.

"I'm reasonably sure, yes."

"We have some catching up to do, then..."

 

####

 

The group gathered around Mina was making significant inroads into her container of cookies and she felt just a tiny bit of relief at the thought of small box in her backpack, where several handfuls of heart-shaped cookies were waiting safely until the afternoon.

"So, what's the deal?" one of the girls from her Italian class asked. "Rose was handing the cookies out yesterday, and I thought it was for both of you."

"She's a day younger" Rose patted Mina's shoulder. "Or, rather, fifteen minutes, but over the midnight divide."

"We're not the weirdest ones" Mina shrugged. "Dad told me today that there are people born in different _months_ , when a mother went into labour on, like, thirtieth of April or something."

"I wonder if there are people who are born in different years" Damien popped another chocolatey round in his mouth. "This. Is. _Divine_. I honestly worship your mother and I haven't really _seen_ the woman yet!"

"Well, it is technically possible, if someone went into labour during the New Year Party and the first kid was born just before midnight..."

"Oh, wow, more useless sweets. I wonder how many of your classmates will make it into the team this year, Darcy, if you keep feeding them this crap."

Mina stiffened.

"These are my birthday cookies, and it's none of your business" she answered as calmly as she could, not turning around.

"What? Your mother can't be arsed to bake some for your actual birthday? She really must love Rose more. What a shame."

"Today actually _is_ Mina's birthday" one of the girls piped up.

_Oh, God, no._

Davison chortled and Mina felt Rose's hands catch and hold her own around the rim of the box.

"You two are even more freaky than I expected. How can you even call yourselves actual _twins_ , if you weren't born on the same day? I wonder, is this some problem with you two, or is your mother so useless she can't properly have kids on time?"

Rose's hold on the container and Mina's hands tightened, and Mina's cheeks blanched as Davison's lumpy, bruised visage came into her view.

"Oh, were you trained to obedience since Tuesday? I wonder, if you are so quick to learn..."

"Ekhm."

 

####

 

Teddy was quite fed up with a lot of things.

Rugby practice, for one. Early mornings, team of jocks, locker room humour... And Davison's ugly mug.

His parents' slight disappointment. He had explained as much as he could - including quoting the slur James had used, which mollified his father a bit - but it was still a dark blot on his otherwise pristine school record.

Mina's weirdness. She was being skittish. Yes, she had been playing Rose for the whole bloody September and she had been sick for a week, and probably overworked now... But it was like a country dance with her, close up and away, cold and hot, present and absent. She kissed him and then told him they can't talk for two weeks. TWO BLOODY WEEKS.

He was thoroughly fed up with Davison's shit, too, so hearing him insulting someone... OK, that was easy, and it was Mina, of course. Davison seemed fixated on the twins and for some reason homed in on Mina unerringly.

_Careful, Theodore. You got yourself a detention for Mina's sake, don't clock the idiot now._

"Considering you are supposed to write a two-pager on how not to be a dick at school," he said slowly "I'm guessing this is you, making a thorough research on the topic."

"Strickland, for your own good, you will turn around and leave," the team captain drawled. "Because I _will_ ensure you will not be playing in any games this season, otherwise."

 _Really? He's trying to blackmail me with_ _**that** _ _?_

"Unlike some, I do not require a _sports_ scholarship to pay for my university" Teddy remarked calmly. "My grades are good enough and I have more options... Not really your business, anyway. Now, I think that unless you want me to report this whole thing to the headmaster, _you_ will leave and, in fact, you will not approach either Darcy in the foreseeable future."

"You think you can make me?" Davison stood straighter, presenting all his five-feet-eight of height. Exactly an inch more than Teddy. And about a stone of muscle more.

"No, I _am_ going to report you to the headmaster. This is in that paper _I_ am supposed to work on. There are procedures on this, you know. I've read them. In a case of a person bullying younger or weaker students..."

"I'll give you weaker," he heard Rose's grumble.

" _Younger_ or weaker students, the ones present on the scene should ascertain the safety of students bullied by isolating them from their aggressor and report the incident to the nearest school authority. Which, in this case, would be either the coach, who had been looking at us from the window for the last several minutes, or the headmaster, who is just a loud shout away. Now, do you want the coach to see two teammates parting peacefully after a kind exchange of friendly remarks, or would you rather have me call him down here and point out the unethical behaviour of the captain?"

"I think that army camp made you a wuss, Strickland."

"I think that whatever it was your father took you on made you even more of a dick than you used to be, Davison."

"A hunting vacation, Strickland. You should try it sometimes. United States - a wonderful, if slightly barbaric country, where a real man can be a real man without paying attention to the authorities. And they have these fabulous forests, unlike our own, semi-bald island. You can shoot a real bear there. Or, well, you could, if you had balls to do that. Not every so-called man does in fact have these. I suppose you'd have problems even raising a rifle properly, not to mention pulling a trigger."

_Oh bloody hell._

"I sincerely doubt killing an unarmed creature is a measure of manliness these days, in our country" he said scathingly. "And I did carry a gun during my training, in fact. I got very good results in the range."

"Range. Phew. Because when the time comes, of course, there will be paper shapes attacking you."

Now he was honestly intrigued.

"What the hell are you talking about, Davison?"

"About survival, Strickland. This is what the endgame is. Survival of the man and his family. Making sure you stay alive when others perish..."

"Ah..." Rose coughed delicately. "Headmaster?"

"Cookies?" Mr Farlane smiled at Mina, who was still holding the container of sweets.

"Chocolate, headmaster" came a quiet answer.

"And what is the occasion?" he carefully picked a cookie from the box.

"My birthday" she looked down at the box and her lower lip trembled.

"Ah, many happy returns, then. Rose... Wait a minute, but Rose's birthday was yes... Ah. Right. I thought it was a clerical error."

"N-no" Mina shook her head, eyes still on the cookies. "Mom says-- I mean, we were born on both sides of midnight. My birthday _is_ today."

"Aah! That's why! So, your classmates should rejoice - they get a double batch of your Mom's biscuits, instead of just one. Now, I see that the situation is becoming rather unpleasant - and on someone's birthday, too. Does anyone wish to volunteer... No, Strickland, not you. Your particular brand of honesty is not what I'm looking for today. Mina? You didn't have a chance to talk to me on Tuesday. Can you tell me what is going on here?"

She shot Teddy a weird look.

"Sir, I..." she stuttered. "I, we were just sitting there, and someone asked the same question and then I explained, and Davison started making fun of me - saying things about our mother..."

"Saying that Mom doesn't love Mina enough to bake for her actual birthday, because he knows better and he said we are supposed to have birthday on the same date and that our mother is too stupid to even have us properly on the same day."

The tall man sighed and turned to the rugby captain.

"You will wait for me in front of my office. We are calling your parents in immediately."

"But..."

"I have heard enough of your exchange with Strickland to make me apprehensive. Hearing _this_..." he shook his head.

"They are lying!"

"We have witnesses," Rose pointed out. "Guys? Was Davison saying stupid crap about our Mom?"

Tatiana and Damien quickly confirmed and the rugby captain left, making a face at them behind the headmaster's back.

"And he said something about Mina needing proper _training_ , I think," Tatiana added.

"And that is when I heard him and told him to lay off," Teddy sighed. "I hadn't heard any of the stuff he said before, but when I asked him to leave the girls alone, he started spouting some idiocy about being a real man and hunting bears."

The headmaster very, very slowly rubbed his face with his large hand.

"And here was I, hoping for a quiet, calm week," he said to nobody in particular. "I think I need another cookie. May I?" he smiled at Mina.

"Here, sir," she raised the container. "Take a few."

"I'll take two then, thank you. I'm very sorry you had to hear this, Mina. I will deal with Davison and his parents, and he shouldn't be bothering you again. Any of you" he nodded towards the others. "I really hope you won't see the whole school as bad just because people like James sometimes make it look a bit less than perfect."

Suddenly her eyes met Teddy's and she _blushed_.

"No, sir" she said quietly. "I think I'm OK with the school in general. As long as I never have to talk to Davison ever again!"

He patted her shoulder.

"I will certainly try to make it so. Now, the two of you, and Theodore, please have your parents come talk to me on Monday morning. I don't want them to feel the situation is not being handled properly. What happened two days ago was, in fact, James' first offence in his whole school career, so I was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt and some time to cool off. I see now that he is set on his course and very much convinced of the validity of his ideas, and these are not compatible with the way I wish this school to be run."

"Ask Sheila, too," Mina blurted out.

"Who?"

"Sheila is James' ex," Rose explained. "She told him to leave her alone after he said some stupid stuff to her... What was it?"

"You said she said it was about her not needing to go to college?"

"Yeah, because she is pretty enough."

The headmaster bit into one of his cookies and chewed for a moment, thinking.

"That would be Sheila McNamara?"

"I suppose so" Rose shrugged. "Only one Sheila in the whole school, I think."

"Very well. Now, Theodore" he turned to Teddy, who startled. "I think we can safely say you don't have to hand in your essay. You have demonstrated your ability to resolve conflict without violence to my satisfaction. How was that military training you have attended, by the way? I meant to ask you before, but it slipped my mind..."

"It was informative, sir" he saw Mina's eyes trained on him, but immediately looked back at the headmaster. "There was a lot of _very_ early mornings, which is never a very pleasant thing, but I dare say I'm better for it, sir."

"Very well. I expect we can have a few more students admitted next summer. It definitely shapes proper young men."

He felt himself flushing with warmth.

"I... Thank you, sir."

"I hope you will manage to lose that crisp attention stance sometime before Christmas, because it makes me recall _my_ Army days, and I know I will never again be as young as I was then, which makes me just a bit sad."

"I'll try, sir," he heard himself say "but I can't promise it will work."

"Very well. As long as you _do_ try. Now, I think I'll take... one more cookie" he winked "and go call James' parents. Please keep the gossipping to the minimum, if possible. If someone starts bothering you about James, refer them to me."

He made a few steps towards the building, but the he stopped, as if considering something.

"And, Teddy?"

He looked up in trepidation.

"Yes, sir?"

"Your detention is cancelled. Please report to Miss Yang for your competition practice immediately after lessons."

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Mina straighten.

"Thank you, sir."

 

#

 

Quite contrary to what Mina had told him she wanted, he had been, in fact, planning to talk to her. Davison's idiotic act simply made them meet earlier than he expected. He didn't manage to say or do what he had been planning to, and the tiny gift box in the pocket of his trousers was still burning its way out of there. But now it could wait. He was going to meet Mina in Miss Yang's classroom in three more hours. He could relax.

More or less.

He kept thinking about the truly epic amount of crap that was going to bury him the moment the next rugby practise came and the rest of the team learnt of their conflict.

If Davison was expelled, they'd be without a captain, and the coach would have to pick a new one. That was always a mess.

If Davison wasn't expelled, they'd be in deep doo, because the stupid prick would be out for blood, especially Teddy's.

He sighed and tried to focus on the chemical experiment being performed by one of the girls at the main table. Something something and potassium. He really hoped one of his mates would lend him the notes, or his boast of being in top three in his class would become much weaker.

Even if Davison was expelled, he'd anyway have to meet that prick every time he went for a run, because he was unfortunate enough to live a street over. Gah.

If Davison wasn't expelled, the prick's self-congratulatory tendencies would lead Teddy to beating him into pulp one of these days at school.

Biology wasn't much better, but at least they were watching a movie and he was awake enough to make a note of the title and so gave himself a chance to watch it later at home.

If Davison was expelled, his parents would make Teddy's parents' life difficult at the homeowners club.

If Davison wasn't expelled, he would make Teddy's life hell at school. And Mina's. And whoever had witnessed today's humiliation.

English. He had to focus. He had read the assigned book and had, at least that very morning, considered himself to be ready to answer any question. Now it seemed less and less probable.

If Davison was exp...

"Strickland! Are you listening?"

The English teacher was looking at him expectantly.

"I'm sorry, Miss. I think I'm not at my best today."

"He's in love, Miss Brandon" one of the other guys drawled in that special "this is so hilarious" tone.

"That doesn't excuse inattentiveness. Strickland, explain to me the main characters' relationship."

He sighed. One more lesson.

 

#

 

By the time they were let go, he had almost bitten his thumbnail to the quick and was slightly jittery due to the missed lunch and a candy bar eaten on a sly instead. Still, he tried to be dignified - not too eager, not too obvious - and so he calmly sauntered towards the music room.

Someone was playing the piano. It definitely wasn't Miss Yang, because she was standing in the doorway and waved to him when she saw him, putting a finger on her lips. Obediently silent, he peeked over her shoulder to look inside the room.

The piano was placed in a fortunate spot - almost directly in front of the big window, well illuminated by the afternoon sun. Mina was sitting facing away from them, steadily working her way through a piece he vaguely recalled having heard multiple times, full of sharp strokes and long passages. The triumphant parts in the higher register were interspersed with more sombre, but still lively sections in lower tones, which quickly escalated into something almost martial-like, more audacious, ending with a long passage up, again more triumphant tones and a strong finish of several accented notes. They stood in silence as she leaned away from the keyboard, then shook her head and sighed 'hopeless'.

He waited for a breath, but as Miss Yang made her way inside, he followed quietly.

"Rafal Blechacz you are not, darling" the teacher said softly. "I'm afraid there are some natural limitations that you have that can only be overcame by extensive practice, and I'm not sure you have enough hours in your day for that amount of playing time."

"I was aiming more at Marta Argerich" the girl remarked morosely. "But I'm still not up to it - especially after my whole summer spent at a camp _and_ a month without any practice at all."

"Mina, may I remind you, you told me yourself you'd started learning piano when you were eight? Marta Argerich _performed her first concert_ at that age. You can't compare yourself at fourteen to her as a grownup."

"I..." Mina's fingers went up into her hair and grasped, pulling them up. "She had that _smile_. Ever since Mom showed me that recording, I though I could one day smile like this. To know that I had conquered this... this..."

"Polonaise" he surprised them both by saying. "Right?"

Mina dropped her hands immediately and she looked at the keyboard, not raising her eyes him.

"Yeah" she said finally. "'Heroic'. Chopin."

"That was... good" he ventured. "I've never heard it played, like, live."

"Well, you two can discuss it later. Now, Mina, take a small break. Teddy? Ready?"

He smiled, trying to still the nervous shiver. Mina moved to where her bag was hanging on one of the chairs and started looking through it, rather intently.

_Uh._

"Breathing, posture, relax..." Miss Yang prompted and he adjusted the way he was standing, brought his head up and inhaled.

It was fine. It was going well. It was actually quite quite good. Until the very end of the second verse.

 

_He smiled at me, and he said, said he,_

_"She's the gem of Ireland's crown,_

_Young Rosie McCann from the banks of the Bann,_

_She's the Star of the County Down."_

 

His voice died at some point and he never even noticed Miss Yang's surprised question. He had only eyes for Mina, who was now sitting ramrod-straight and very, very carefully _not_ looking at him.

"Mina..." he started and saw her shook her head. "Miss Yang, is it too late to change the song to something else?"

The teacher glanced at him in surprise, but then followed his stare to Mina and, apparently, added two and two together.

"Ah" she said, slowly. "It's only a week and a half to the competition, Teddy."

"But..."

"No" suddenly, Mina was standing in front of him, looking up sternly. "No. You have practised this and prepared and you're not going to change now just because some people are going to be stupid about it. _I_ am singing a song written from the point of view of a soldier waiting to be executed! The songs are not the reality. And if someone is crazy enough to bother you about it, send them to _me_."

"Mina..."

"Sing. This. Song."

"...I kind of wanted it to be."

"W-what?" he saw her honest confusion.

"I had that grand plan, to do something on the stage and sing it..." he swallowed "...for you. To you. And it was OK, and your hair is kind of nut-brown, and everything, but now..."

"The name doesn't fit, I know. That's OK. As long as you don't _call_ me Rose, I'm fine."

He shivered suddenly.

"I wouldn't!"

"Ekhm."

"Sorry, Miss."

Mina smiled, reached up to pat his cheek and went to sit again at the back of the room.

"Come on. From the beginning."

He breathed deeply and nodded.

"In Banbridge Town near the County Down..."

 

#

 

When Teddy was done, and quite lightheaded from all the "proper breathing", "giving it a little more push" and "more dynamically!", he sat down on the floor, leaned on the wall and watched Mina preparing to go through the same.

"Ready?"

He saw the girl drawing her shoulders up and then relaxing, rolling her head around and yawning forcibly a few times.

"Yes" she said finally, coughed and drew a breath.

_By yon bonnie banks, and by yon bonnie braes..._

Miss Yang allowed her to finish, despite certain small imperfections even he had heard and only then gave her feedback.

"I hope your throat will be fine by the next weekend. It would be a shame if all that exercise was wasted because of one small infection."

"Not _that_ small, I'm afraid" someone commented and Teddy scrambled to stand up from where he had sat, cross-legged, relaxing finally. "But I'll make sure she doesn't strain herself."

"Mrs Darcy, I presume?" Miss Yang smiled at the tiny woman - barely taller than Mina and Rose.

"Elizabeth Bennet, Mina and Rose's mother" the newcomer smiled widely. "Miss Bennet is fine. And I have a proposition for you."

Another, much taller woman followed her and Miss Yang's focus immediately shifted.

"Ah... hello again."

"Hi. Elizabeth? Your offer?"

"Well, yes. I've heard from Mina that you are missing accompaniment at the competition because there is no way to get a working instrument into the main auditorium."

"That's sadly correct. The grand piano that was in the auditorium was tuned too tightly by someone I'm not going to name, and now it's warped beyond all use," both newcomers winced "and we can't get any of the classroom pianos downstairs, because that would require... well, can't."

"What about an electric piano?" Miss Bennet - Mina's mother - grinned. "Would that be OK?"

"Well, that depends on the piano..." Miss Yang seemed unsure. "Why?"

"I have, you see, a very nice Yamaha at my disposal. If you'd care to have a look?"

"What, _here_?"

The taller of the two made a step back and then noticed him.

"Come on, young man. Help me with this."

He followed her obediently, and there, in the corridor, was Rose, guarding a large, long, black bag.

"It's a bit cumbersome" the woman said. "Pick up one end, just don't drop it. Rose, the stand."

In minutes, the stand was opened and locked in position, the piano as secured on top of it and plugged in and the tiny woman was turning it on. Miss Yang sat at the instrument and tried out the keys - he didn't have enough experience with pianos to say what it was that she was looking for, but she definitely looked satisfied.

"We could also take some pressure off of you" Miss Bennet added, smiling at Miss Yang. "Georgie and me, we both play, quite well, if I say so myself. _And_ we can both assist at school for the next week and a half, to help with all the students who would need it."

"Uh, Mom..." Mina frowned and he felt a bit of a tension.

"...ah. Well," Miss Yang bit her lip. "With Mina taking part, I think it would be the best for me to be the only one to accompany everyone, so that there was no suspicion of manipulation, you see. But if you wish to help at any later occasion, we'll be preparing for the Christmas concert - Mina had probably mentioned that, correct?"

"Georgiana too."

"Well, G-Miss Darcy suggested she could help and play the harp, and I must admit, having another person on the piano will help immensely if I'm supposed to be the director of the whole evening, and that is what it's shaping up to be. If there were two of you _and_ Miss Darcy would be switching to the harp at some point, I'd say the concert would benefit significantly."

"I can lead a smaller group on a guitar, too, if there would be a need. Up to five, maybe six? Younger kids, too, no problem here. I could practise with them at school."

"I would welcome any kind of help for the concert, absolutely. Still, I'm afraid I'll have to cope with the contest by myself. Just to make sure there is no suspicion of partiality."

Miss Darcy - probably Mina's aunt then - and Miss Bennet exchanged glances.

"Sure, I see your point about the conflict of interest, I kind of missed that angle. But the offer of the piano still stands - we can bring it in on Saturday and set it up long before the event. If you prefer any specific tuning, it can be adjusted, too."

"That would be perfect. Absolutely perfect. That will... Well, children singing a cappella are always nice, but still..."

"That would lack a certain something that a proper performance needs, wouldn't it?" Miss Darcy interjected.

"Exactly!"

They smiled at each other and Teddy saw Mina and Rose looking at them speculatively and then glancing at each other.

_Ah. I see._

"So," Miss Bennet tapped the piano. "We'll bring it on Saturday... Unless you have a place we could lock it up at school? Less fuss and it does take a lot of space in the car..."

"Well, we could put it in my room," Miss Yang walked to the back of the classroom and opened the internal door. "It locks, it has no window and there is enough space to store it safely, especially if it's in the cover."

"Fine by me. I'd much rather not have to haul it downstairs right now."

They placed the instrument in the padded bag, zipped it closed carefully and he helped Miss Darcy carry it to be secured in the small room. The stand was added and the door locked - two locks - keys going to Miss Yang's purse.

"And on Saturday I'll ask the janitor - or one of the bigger boys, like Teddy here - to help me carry it to the auditorium."

Suddenly there were two pairs of eyes trained on him and he squirmed under the scrutiny of both Mina's mother and aunt.

"Ah, so _this_ is Teddy," the shorter one said, a smile dancing on her lips.

"Mom," Mina hissed, blushing.

He looked at the floor, drawing a deep breath.

"Theodore Strickland, yes, ma'am."

"Elizabeth Bennet" there was a fine-boned hand in his field of view, so he grasped it carefully, looking up at the woman. "Nice to finally meet you, Theodore."

He was waiting for something like 'Mina told us a lot about you' 'we've heard about you' or, basically, whatever else! She however simply squeezed his hand lightly, grinned at him in a slightly conspiratorial manner and nodded.

"Good" she finally said and stepped back. "Georgiana? You coming?"

"Nah, I'll catch the bus" was the answer from where 'Georgiana' was conferring about something with Miss Yang.

"Rose, come on. I need you to help me with the seats we had to move to fit the piano in."

And suddenly they were gone. Miss Yang and Miss Darcy were in the corner, completely absorbed in each other. And Mina and him by their backpacks.

"I," she coughed and looked away. "I have something for you."

He frowned and found himself being handed a small, cardboard box.

"But, Mina, it's _your_ birthday..."

"And these are _my_ birthday cookies," she pressed his fingers around the box. "I brought the big box for the class, but I... I mean, my Mom, she... I mean..." she let go of his hands. "Here. I hope you like chocolate."

He loved chocolate. Hell, had these turned out to be spinach cookies, he would have probably loved spinach, too.

"I," he felt the same tightness in his throat that she was apparently experiencing. "I, uh, got you something."

"Teddy...!" there was a soft scolding in her voice.

"Just, I saw this in the market last weekend, and I kind of thought..." he put the cookies aside was digging out the flat box in panic now that she was taking a step back. "It reminded me of you, and I didn't even know your birthday was so soon, I was thinking more about, well, Christmas, or something..." he caught her hands and wrapped them around the tiny piece of plastic. "Please?"

She finally opened her fingers and looked at the clear flat package. The single eight note with a tiny topaz-coloured glass in the place of the note body had been something that made him think of her immediately when he saw it on Saturday, and once he heard the day before the explanation she and Rose provided, he dug it out of its hiding place in his desk and made sure to have it in his pocket in the morning. He hadn't foreseen, on buying it, that he'd be making use of it that soon, so he had no time to prepare his grand speech to explain how her eyes were as lumi...

Mina was kissing his cheek. Again. And then she picked up the box of cookies and put it securely in his hands.

"Thank you" she whispered and twirled in place. And she was gone before he could react.

Cautiously, he poked the flaps of the box up. A rich smell of chocolate reached him and he sighed. He really, _really_ loved chocolate. It had been one of the reasons he had signed up for that military camp. He wanted to avoid going back to the way he used to look before his growth spurt, and so a summer spent on daily exercise and a lot of challenging training had seemed like just the way to do this. Being isolated from his Mum's cooking and only eating according to the base doctor's advice helped, too.

And he had already used up his "one piece of candy a day" limit for the candybar that had played the role of his lunch. Now he would be paying the price for not eating properly.

He swallowed, hard, and closed the box again.

_Tomorrow._

But...

He opened the box again, this time pulling the flaps fully away and allowing the light to illuminate the contents properly.

_Little hearts._

_Oh._

 

####

 

Mina had such a weird face when she came down from the music room that Rose checked if she hadn't lost her backpack or the box. No, both were there, present and accounted for.

"You OK?"

Mina nodded, looking away.

"He OK?"

"Rose..." her sister mumbled in protest.

"No, I mean, really. Just worried. You look..." she shrugged. "Never mind."

"He gave me something" her sister finally said.

Mom sat in the front and sighed.

"Home, or do you need anything? Supplies, notebooks, pencils, whatevers?"

"No, nothing. Mina, what did..."

Her sister shoved a tiny pendant in front of her nose.

"Wow."

"Girls?"

She shot Mina a look, but her sister was focused on the piece of metal she was holding.

"No, nothing. We don't need anything. Can we go home?"

"Sure. And, Rose, do you have a lot of homework for tomorrow?"

She frowned, but shook her head.

"Just two maths problems. Ten minutes, tops."

"OK, so when we are home, get started on them immediately. Dad will be waiting for you in the stables. He just texted for us to hurry up a bit."

"Can Mina come, too?"

She glanced at her sister, who was still holding the tiny copper note with a silly smile.

"I'd say no, not for a few more days. She has to stop coughing after every move. Maybe after the competition, hm?"

Rose sat back, thinking morosely of all the things they _could_ do, but that Mina was still not well enough to _actually_ do.

"In two weeks, it will be Halloween" Mina volunteered suddenly, as if reading her thoughts. "We could dress up?"

"Is there trick-or-treating in Lambton?" Mom asked at the next red light.

"No, it's more of a street fair thing. There is stuff set up on the squares, stands with food, toys, masks, pieces of clothing and some games - a shooting range, last year, but it's always fake, because nobody managed to shoot the marker for the plushie unicorn."

"So, everything aimed towards milking the last penny out of unsuspecting kids?"

"Yeah."

"Sounds promising" Mom snorted. "We should absolutely go. Everyone dresses up?"

"Yeah. And the schools sometimes make an afternoon dance, too."

They sat in silence until the car turned from the main road towards the house.

"Think about what costumes you want and tell me, so we can plan them carefully."

"We could dress as Rapunzel" Mina giggled. "We'd just need to find a blonde wig, and one of us would be Rapunzel before the haircut, and the other, after the haircut."

"Or we could be Snow White. One in the pretty princess dress and the other in the dress from the forest."

"No, not Snow White. Mulan!"

"Mulan had _longer_ hair."

"We could dress as something generic, but one as a girl and the other as a boy. And we could switch places. To see if anyone notices."

"Or..."

"Or we could find two red wigs and I'd be the Ariel with the tail, who could sing, and you'd be the one with the legs, because you can't."

There was a moment of silence in the car, as Rose reeled from the mental punch her sister had just delivered.

"Mina" Mom's voice from the front seat was rather calm. "Apologise to Rose, now."

"But, Mom, she _can't_."

"That doesn't mean you are allowed to say it this way. Now, Mina."

Rose saw her sister's grimace and rolled her eyes.

"I'm sorry, Rose" Mina sighed. "That was a wrong thing to say."

"Now go upstairs and start working on your Italian essay. Rose, come on. Let's find your father."

"But, maths...?"

"I'll wake you up earlier and we'll deal with this before breakfast. Now, go. Stables."

 

#

 

There was that elation that came only with a physical exertion and a lot of fresh air. How much more chance they'd have to do that depended on the weather, but for now, it kept, so they were turning back to the house only once the both of them and horses were just a bit tired, making use of as much of afternoon light as was available.

"How are you doing?" Dad asked finally, after an hour of silence.

She cocked her head to one side and considered the question.

In general?

Right now?

In the saddle?

Health-wise?

School?

"It's good to be back home" she finally said.

"Mhm. And what about other stuff? School?"

"School is..." she would have shrugged, but she didn't want to disrupt Star's steps. "Acceptable. Ah. We kind of forgot one thing. Headmaster asks for you to come meet him on Monday."

"Kind of forgot, or were you planning another escape?"

"Forgot, because he only asked today, really. He wants to see you and Teddy's parents, in fact. There was..." she considered. "An incident. The same boy that Mina had punched, he started today again. He insulted Mom. We didn't do anything - and Teddy helped to rein him in a bit, but finally the headmaster heard half of the argument anyway, and then he asked Mina for the rest... so she told him. No punches were thrown, so nobody - none of _us_ \- got suspended or anything, and even Teddy's detention got cancelled."

"I see" Dad looked quite ready to bite someone. "And Monday? Why?"

"The headmaster will be talking to the parents of that guy today, and then he wants to talk to you and to Teddy's parents, to explain what will be happening from now on. He almost kind of promised Mina he'd be kicking the idiot out of the school. No idea really if he is allowed to do it, but..." she rolled her eyes. "As long as Davison stays away from us, I'm OK."

"I hope Mr Farlane can ensure that. If that boy had actually, physically attacked one of you..."

"I'm not sure he would have. He is, like, more mouth than anything else. Ugly mouth, especially since Mina punched him, but just loud. I'm not sure actually beating up a girl half his size would have fitted his macho image."

"After a while, I suppose it would. Finally it would have been "her fault" for doing something that he had to stop her from doing" Dad shook his head. "I wonder what happened to the boy. From what you said, last year he seemed rather... normal?"

"His father took him to the States and they went hunting in the wild. He came back with all these crazy notions about only the best surviving and crap like that. The way he was speaking to Strickland, I thought he would start foaming at the mouth any moment."

"His father took him _hunting_ in the USA?"

"Yeah. Stupid, isn't it? I suppose I prefer the way Teddy had spent his vacation - whatever happens at the military camp, he seems much more like a civilised human being than Davison."

"A military camp? Hm. Did he say what he was doing there?"

"He just mentioned early mornings and exercise. He did gain a lot of muscle, I suppose. But he plays rugby and all of these guys are a bit bulky anyway. And he said he was training on a shooting range and getting good results."

"Hmm. I wonder where that training actually was... Army Cadets have a lot of camps and centres all over the country, I suppose."

 

#

 

Rose dropped on her bed, looking at Mina, falling asleep over her Italian textbook.

"I was thinking."

"It's dangerous."

"I mean it."

"Me too."

"Seriously, we have to call Joana."

Mina frowned.

"J... Ah, Joana? Cool but why?"

"Because we maybe, like, you know. Maybe she needs someone to talk to?"

"And you are going to call a girl whose parents got divorced in secret and tell her what, ours got together again?"

Rose grimaced.

"Not cool."

"Completely."

"We can text her and ask if she wants to talk."

"Ok. Text should be fine."

"Tomorrow."

"In the morning."

"In the morning."

"Sorry for being such an idiot."

Rose sighed.

"No worries. I'm... I was, too, you know. We can call it even, I suppose."

 

####

 

Friday at school was suspiciously quiet. There was no Davison, no rugby practice, no singing practice, no club meetings. And no Teddy. Almost no Teddy. Mina was getting a bit worried after the whole day spent hurrying from one end of the school to another and not even a glimpse of the boy. She cautiously fingered the copper note hanging on a black string around her neck.

"Whassrong?" Rose glared at her suspiciously.

"Nothing" she looked down and then to the side.

"Strickland? Is he giving you grief, or something?"

"Rose! No, just..." she shrugged. "Haven't seen him all day. I'm kind of worried."

For the sake of Mina's nerves, it was good that Teddy was, in fact, at school, but rather busy dodging his classmates and avoiding the necessity to explain The Whole Deal With Davison to everyone. As she and Rose were leaving through the main exit, suddenly someone held the door open for them. Mina turned her head up and smiled.

"Thank you for the cookies" he said softly.

"Thank you for..." her hand went up to her throat again and she could see his eyes widening.

"Good" he breathed.

"Good."

"See you on Monday then. Are your parents coming?"

"I suppose they are. See you."

It was suddenly a much better Friday.

 

####

 

"Mom! Dad's saying... he's saying _things_ to his computer."

"Dad! Mom says stop swearing at the computer, they get shy."

"Dad says the computer is not shy, it's stupid."

"Mom says the computer is as stupid as the person in fr..."

"Dad says thanks, love."

"Mom says if you have a problem, please tell her."

"Dad says they had sent him a simulation of the software that the House will have and he can't work it out. He managed to shut down the fireplace, but it didn't switch automatically to the other heating."

"Mom asks if the background is yellow."

"Dad asks what in the blazes..."

"Mom asks if the background is yellow and please check if there is a small red flag in the upper left corner."

"Dad says yes, and how on Earth did you know."

"Mom says to click the flag, see the message, then click it and turn on the needed options."

Silence.

He buried his face in her hair, arms sneaking around her waist as he kissed down her neck and up to her ear.

"My smart, perfect Elizabeth" he nuzzled her ear with his nose. "My marvellous girl. How did you..."

"Next time if you want my help with new software, please wait until I'm done with the dough, hm? I couldn't just leave it like this in the middle of kneading."

"Good thing you're simply a genius" he pressed his lips to her cheek.

"Good thing I wrote the thing" she smiled and waited.

One.

Two.

Three.

"Seriously" he groaned. "It... Wait a moment! You were writing it! All that time when Mina was sick, it was _this_. Whenever Jonathan sent back another remark to be corrected..."

"Yep" she pulled at the dough some more, then started tearing off equally-sized chunks.

"So... Oh" he frowned and his arms went tighter around her. "But that means if they want to change something..."

"They will come to me and I will then talk to a lawyer - not theirs, yours - how to resolve this correctly. But the last time they asked I told them 'no' anyway. And my part of the software is up to specification, so they shouldn't be needing my help any time soon."

"What? Why?"

"I have my rules" she started rolling one of the smaller pieces flat. "One of them is 'I make no cutesy mobile interfaces'" she sprinkled the piece with cinnamon and dark sugar.

"Oh" he hid his face in the crook of her neck. "Mmm, you smell heavenly. Butter, sugar, spices."

"Yes, and if you don't move right now, so will you, William."

"Good" he smiled, pulling himself closer and watching her fingers working steadily on another piece of dough. "What is this?"

"Cinnamon bread. In the form of little buns that can be torn off from the rest. Now, if you insist on immobilising me, please hand me that big tin from the table."

"I _absolutely_ insist" he reached for the tin and placed it in front of Elizabeth. "I... hmpf... absolutely... insist."

She sighed and reached back with a flour-dusted hand, bringing him closer for a kiss.

"I need twenty minutes and it _will_ be much faster if I have my full range of movement" she informed him sternly. "This" she pressed a longer kiss to his mouth "should tide you over. Now, back off, Mr Darcy, or the guests will be eating raw dough."

"Mmm... If you say so, Miss Bennet" he tightened his hold. "But I would have thought I'd have a higher priority on your list than some yeast cultures."

" _You_ will survive twenty minutes wait. They won't."

He took another minute to kiss her most thoroughly.

" _Now_ I'll survive twenty minutes."

"William!"

 

####

 

"I have a question" Mina asked as they stretched on their beds after the stable cleaning and a shower.

"Fire away."

"If I saw something yesterday - and the day before, too - then, well, aunt Georgiana..."

"Yep. Looks like it. Fancy that."

"OK, so what do we do about it? I mean, do we... I don't know. I don't really know if there is a special thing we should... I mean, I don't know about Dad. Mom is OK with... things. Stuff. But I don't know what Dad would say."

Rose rolled her eyes and flopped back on her bed.

"Dad is absolutely fine with this kind of  _things_. Don't worry."

Mina opened her mouth to ask a question, but suddenly there was a sound of an engine going up the drive. Considering everyone was at the house - and Brian and the estate workers were taking a longer weekend off, after their hard work in the gardens - there was no reason for any cars to be coming to the mansion. Unless...

Rose was first out of the door, Mina on her heels.

In the downstairs hall, they almost crashed into their father, who reached out and stabilised them.

"Dad, who can be coming at such an hour?"

"Your birthday guests" Mom answered and threw the main door open in a wide gesture. "Come on, let's help them with all the luggage!"

Two cars were disgorging adults and children. Mina counted six little cousins - including Jimmy, holding aunt Mary's hand and watching everything curiously. She stood at the bottom of the stairs, holding Rose's hand, waiting for the inevitable...

"Mommy!"

Ah-ha. Yola.

"Yes, darling?" Mina saw aunt Jane winking at her.

"Mommy, why Mina is twice?"

Everyone turned, first to look at Yola, then to where she was pointing.

While Yola was the most perceptive one, Jackie, as the eldest, was the bravest. She walked up to the twins and poked Mina in the shoulder.

"Real" she pronounced, then poked Rose. "Also real."

The twins snorted.

"Yes, we are both real."

"OK, so Mommy wasn't having hal-lu-si-na-sion in the car when she was explaining this to us, right?" Isabelle joined her older sister. "There actually are two of you."

"Yes" Rose nodded.

"So... Which one is Mina and which is not Mina?" Jackie demanded, hands on her hips. "Because..."

"I'm Rose."

"And I am Mina."

Jackie nodded slowly.

"So where did you come from? Because Mina is aunt Lizzy's."

Rose and Mina looked at each other.

"Rose is my sister" Mina said slowly. "We just... didn't know each other for a long time."

"How can she be your sister without you knowing? This doesn't make sense."

Rose sighed.

_Like a lot of things around here, little cousin._

"Rose has been living here, in Derbyshire, with our father. And I've been living in London with our Mom."

Bella scrunched up her nose.

"This doesn't make sense. You don't have a daddy. Aunt Lizzy had you on her own."

Aunt Jane blushed.

"Bella, this isn't so" she said quickly. "Mina and Rose have a father, see? This one here? This is your uncle William. He is your daddy's best friend."

Jackie frowned.

"If he is Daddy's best friend, how come we've never met before?"

The adults winced.

"Let's get this party inside?" Mom suggested, voice oh-so-bright that Mina grimaced a bit. "Girls? Pick something up? Jane, these boxes, to the fridge? Georgiana, take this down to the kitchen, please. Will, pick up these bags and take them upstairs. Everyone, follow uncle William!"

Aunt Mary, one hand on Jimmy's shoulder and another dragging their weekend bag, moved first.

 

####

 

Elizabeth sighed, putting another container into the secondary fridge.

Georgiana looked at her, brows raised.

"That's... a lot of people at once?" she remarked hesitantly.

"Just Jane, Charles, Mary and their little troop."

"Mary, yes" Georgiana frowned a bit. "Jimmy...?"

"Adopted. Almost four years ago. Yes, small for his age. Expected to have development problems. FAS, low body mass at birth. Mary decided to adopt him after she had volunteered as baby-hugger in one of the small-child care centres. You wouldn't believe the amount of fuss our parents raised when she said she doesn't want a guy, she just wants a kid...! For a while, Jane and I were the only ones she wanted to talk to. If you want to know more, you can ask her, she's fine with telling the story now."

Georgiana nodded and busied herself with the tea tray, pulling pre-prepared repast from the fridge.

"I'll call everyone to the dining room, I suppose" Elizabeth rubbed her temples. "I hope this works. I wouldn't want for this to go too badly for the girls. It is their birthday weekend, after all."

 

#

 

Upstairs, little Bingleys were watching curiously as their father and their new uncle tried to divide the luggage between the rooms.

"Ah, Lizzy" William sounded worried. "It seems we have miscalculated. Or, rather, underprepared. One of the windows in the last room has a substantial leak and the room isn't heating up..." he untangled another bag from his shoulder. "I was thinking, how to rearrange everyone in the rooms that are already heated..."

She looked around and sighed, counting quickly.

"We have aunt Catherine's old room, Mary can take it, with Jimmy in his cot. Then Anne's old room, Jane, Charles and Jonathan in  _his_ travel cot. This is connected with the internal door to the room I sleep in now. I'll just collect my things and Evelyn, Yola and Bella can sleep there - the bed is big enough. And then we have the field bed ready for Jackie and she will either sleep with her sisters or with Rose and Mina, which was anyway the plan."

Jane frowned, trying to follow, but she nodded finally.

"But where will you..."

"No worries, Jane. I will set up a place for myself easily, and this way you'll have the kids almost with you, no need to get out of the rooms if they need something. Now, better try to get your merry band downstairs for the tea and light supper. There are sandwiches and toast, some boiled eggs, a little bit of everything, cold and hot."

"Are there any carrot sticks?" Yola asked with sudden interest.

"Yes, and I've put them far away from the pepper slices and the little onions, so you can eat them safely. Wash your hands!"

Jackie snagged Yola's and Isabelle's hands and pulled them with her, leaving the grownups to deal with little Evelyn, who was still standing in the middle of the corridor, studying the patterned rug under her feet.

Jonathan had started fussing, despite his generally calm nature, so Charles unwound the sling from his chest and eased his son to the floor.

"Pa!" the boy said happily.

"Yes, Johnny. Pa. And we're at uncle Will's house and we're going to eat. Are you hungry?"

"Pa!"

"Come on. Downstairs. Evelyn, supper is waiting for us."

"M-hm" his youngest daughter mumbled, looking at the carpet pattern again. "Look, Daddy. Flowers."

He leaned in and followed her pointing finger.

"Flowers, definitely. I think this is some kind of rose, and this is a lily. Now, can we go and have something to eat? Evelynosaur, do you wish to hunt for your supper?"

"Yes!" the cute, round-faced tiny elf stretched her arms in front of her, bared her teeth, giving an almighty roar and running after her sisters, forcing Charles to pick up little Johnny and follow her.

Elizabeth, Jane, Mary and Jimmy joined them downstairs in a much more sedate fashion, allowing fascinated Jimmy to walk slowly, touching the flowers decorating the staircase wall.

 

#

 

The main table was quite big enough to accommodate everyone, fortunately, so once the Evelynosaur was satisfied with her prey (a grilled cheese sandwich prepared by William in the tabletop grill), Yola had located the bowl of carrots and celery, Jimmy had explained which sandwich looked the most interesting and Johnny was happily stuffing himself with a crepe filled with cottage cheese and a dribble of honey, the grownups could relax. Jackie, under Mina's and Rose's care, was managing quite well, warming up to Rose with every second.

"I think we should put her up in the girls' room" Elizabeth suggested quietly. "I will take another field bed and put it in their study. They won't need it in the morning anyway, so nobody will disturb me there."

"Their  _study_?" Jane raised an eyebrow.

"Well, one bedroom is the  _bed_ room and the other is a workroom. They want to share, but they wouldn't be able to fit two beds and two desks in one room. So, we split it by function."

"I don't feel very well about displacing you..." Mary began cautiously.

"Don't worry. I've slept on one of these when Mina was sick" Elizabeth patted her hand. "I'll be fine for two more days."

"If you say so" Mary shook her head.

William snagged a bit of the cinnamon bread for himself, before children identified the treat, and was watching her intently. She tried not to look up too obviously, but, as he licked the sugar and tiny traces of cinnamon from his lower lip, she had to control a small shiver.

 

#

 

The bathing time was a bit challenging, but the appropriate usage of older cousins as guards for potential half (or completely) naked runaways had let them manage the smallest set and get them into Elizabeth's big bed in short time. They were a bit surprised with the idea of sleeping all together, but the side door that opened to their parents' room and the light coming from that direction - and the sounds of Johnny being put to his bed - calmed them down quickly. Elizabeth stayed for a moment longer, watching them, but the trio had actually fallen asleep by the time she had collected her things and crept out.

As she was coming back from the girls' "study", having dropped her things off there, she stopped by William's door to ask him for the other field bed, but two male voices from inside gave her a pause. There was no way she was going to intrude when he was talking to Charles. They had to have a lot to discuss.

Shrugging, she turned to the staircase.

Time to start baking, now that there was finally nobody around.

In the kitchen, she loaded the dishwasher and filled in one half of the sink with soapy water, in which she had deposited the dirtiest dishes that couldn't be put in the dishwasher.

Then, having cleared the working area and freed the shelf in the fridge, she pulled out the flour, sugar, eggs, the freshly-bought cocoa, the promised blackberry preserve and all the necessary tools, including her big mixer and a series of bowls.

"So, are we making this by the book, or are we counting on our luck?" she asked the kitchen range. "Luck? OK. I suppose that's the best way. Just let me check the general direction..." she glanced at the proportions for her favourite chocolate cake base.

Three whites, into the mixer bowl. Put on high speed. Add sugar, single spoons...

Soon there was a rising cake base in the oven and Elizabeth was whipping the cream and pureeing the blackberry preserve.

"Hi" Mary said softly and Lizzy nearly jumped.

"Lord, Mary. You are quiet."

"No, you were loud. Fortunately not loud enough to wake anyone, but..."

"Tea?"

"Only if you're making for yourself, but the way you drink it. I just woke up and came down here to see if there is anything that could help me go back to sleep. Charles was driving my car, so I slept through most of the way, too..."

"I need a break anyway. Sit, sit."

Mary placed a small baby monitor next to her on the table.

"He is still not sleeping through the night?"

Mary shrugged.

"It's just in case. At home, he's fine four nights out of five. Here, well. We shall see. What are you doing at this barbaric hour?"

"Birthday cake" she smiled and stretched. "I promised them blackberry jam in it, and so shall it be. And some frozen blackberries, and dulce de leche..."

"Naked, or covered?"

Elizabeth shrugged.

"Naked, probably. I don't have the patience to fiddle with buttercream and the icing only for it to be thrown away the minute we cut the cake."

"I'd much rather have the cake naked or in just good old whipped cream."

"Or chocolate!"

"Definitely."

The oven pinged softly, so Elizabeth had to get up and pull out the cake, transferring it onto a cooling rack.

"Ok, the second round now" she quickly made another batch of batter and poured it into a second, identical tin. "I bought a new brand of cream for whipping and I need to check it... rather nice, actually, hmm. And it stays up. OK, now, I need to mix the fruit puree with this and we'll see..."

Mary sat at the table, watching her as she puttered around the kitchen.

The cake was growing.

"First round, cut in two" she mumbled, pouring tea and raspberry juice into a cup and then sprinkling the cake base with the mixture. "Soak the edges, nah nah... Dulce de leche, the fruit...And the cream. No, cream last. First, prepare all the layers. So, soaking, dulce de leche, fruit. Repeat. Aaand for the top... The rest of dulce de leche for now. The decoration can wait for the morning. Now, construction" she pulled one of the tins closer and placed the pre-prepared piece inside. Ladling out the third of the pink cream, she covered the fruit in the middle of the piece. "I hope this will hold up... Can you check if I didn't put the rest of the cream smack in the middle of the shelf I had emptied before? I just might have, knowing myself."

Mary confirmed the free space availability on the middle shelf, so Elizabeth could finish the cake quickly and relocate it to where it would not lose its shape.

"Once we pull it out, all icy cold, I'll add chocolate dribbles all over it, the cream and some more fruit. This way--" yawn "--it will not get  _too_  wet."

"Upstairs, and go to sleep, Lizzy" Mary patted her back. "If you oversleep, I think we will manage with Jane - and with our gentlemen."

"Everything you'd need is in the pantry" Elizabeth yawned. "I hope I won't fall asleep on the stairs. That would be inconvenient."

 

####

 

"Only the civil ceremony?" Charles cocked his head to the side. "Does make sense, I absolutely agree with Lizzy. Mrs Bennet would be on you in seconds, and reading of the banns is one of the chief entertainments of such small communities. It makes them feel powerful - like nobody can do anything unless "the elders" allow them to."

William nodded.

"Last thing we want is Mrs Bennet invading the venue trying to overrule our plans. No, I wouldn't do that to Lizzy. We'll get married at the office and then we can discuss with the parson what we can do  _next_. I just... I just want us to be properly, lawfully married, so that nobody can bother either of us, or Rose, or Mina" he sighed. "I just want the whole world to buzz off."

"Riiiight. So, would there be anyone else attending? Us, I'm guessing Mary?"

"Richard. You'll have to share the dubious honour of being my best man with him."

Charles snorted and shook his head.

"At least some entertainment is guaranteed then. Is he coming alone or...?"

"That depends, you know, getting a leave at short notice."

"It would be nice to see them both. Still, even Richard by himself is a bright spot. And it may inspire the stupid git to finally make a move. Anyone else?"

"Georgiana will play something, the girls will bring the rings and then we'll all come back here and have a small party. Elizabeth is already researching cake options."

"Don't tell me she's baking it herself."

"Of course she is. How could she let someone else bake it and so risk them making a mess of it?"

Charles nodded.

"If you put it like this... Absolutely. And she knows best what would suit everyone."

"I kind of suggested the Black Forest" William smirked, seeing his friend purse his lips in a silent whistle. "Yeah, I still remember that one she made for Jane's birthday 'as an experiment, you know, just checking if I can'. The worst part was, she was honest - she all made it in that awful tiny kitchen they had, with an old gas oven and next to no working space. And she did it while programming something for a project."

"I was terrified of her" Charles admitted suddenly. "She was so different from Jane, and so surprising. And she had next to no sensitivity to some social ideas, like  _not_  walking around in her t-shirt and pyjama shorts all day, or  _not_  calling one out on their walk of shame... The first time I spent the night, I was trying to sneak out and she simply sat me down at the table, put a plate of toast in front of me, poured some tea and went on to kick Jane out of her bed. Then she suggested we wash up and threatened us with bodily harm if we wake her up before noon."

"That... that doesn't sound like Elizabeth" William blinked.

"She was tired, sleepy and we might have been a bit loud...?" Charles cringed.

"So she..."

"She fed us and, more or less, told us to keep quiet, or else. I think there was a tyre iron being presented."

"OK, that does sound a bit like Elizabeth."

"She was in her flat, her own safe space, that's what Jane said later. Out of the door - Lizzy in the safe mode. Inside - Lizzy in 'protect the herd' mode."

William snorted softly at the imagery.

"OK, Will. I'll be honoured to stand up with you - and Jane and Elizabeth had probably already agreed on the same in the first ten seconds after we arrived, so they will be taking over the control of most of the preparations and we will simply defer to their better understanding of the subject."

"To the ladies of our lives" William raised his teacup and met his friend's cup with a quiet 'chink'. "May they have mercy on our failings and stay with us long enough for us to prove we're not completely hopeless."

"And, to paraphrase a certain musical..." Charles winked. "May heavens bless Mr and Mrs Bennet and keep them... far away from that wedding."

"You're a bad man, Charles."

"You wouldn't have loved me so if I was any different. Have you already set everything up? The date, the venue?"

"It was, in a way, rather... easy. We didn't even check for the exact rules of how, when and who can get married. Particularly thoughtless of us, but fortune favours not only the brave, but the stupid, too."

His friend leaned back in his seat.

"How so?"

"In order to give notice at the office, that you're planning to marry, one has to live in the area for at least seven days. Me, it's not a problem..."

"Elizabeth?"

"She's been here since last Friday. That makes ten days."

"But how do you prove it? I remember some absolute idiocy was required - like utility bills. How can one have a utility bill if they had just moved a week earlier?"

William snorted.

"Apparently a letter from the owner of the place where the person has been staying is perfectly fine, too. I didn't want to discuss the point with the very stern young lady that had received us, because we really wanted to make sure there will be an appointment for us on the 11th of November."

"Perfect" Charles raised his cup. "Are you two sure? I mean, this is both very quick and very..."

"Yes" he answered curtly. "We've discussed this, we want to do it, we don't want to wait for something to happen  _again_. Considering how our last two weeks went, I feel like it's been months, not just days, since she came here..." he shook his head. "It's been a pure adrenaline rollercoaster, starting with aunt Catherine admitting she had been burning all correspondence between Elizabeth and me..."

"What?!"

He sat back and looked at his shocked friend in silence.

"She's been..." Charles carefully set the cup on the table next to him. "She..."

"Yes. She stole Lizzy's letters and gifts for Rose and burnt them."

"But... Good Lord, she had burnt all the..."

"Yes. And she did the same with my mother's jewellery and other family mementoes which  _I_  had been sending to Mina."

Charles raked his fingers through his sandy blonde curls.

"It was one of the reasons I could finally kick her and Anne out" William explained, letting his friend gather his thoughts. "You see, the whole thing started two weeks ago, on Friday afternoon..."

 

#

 

When Charles left, his head reeling with the story, William collected the cups and the tea service and brought them downstairs. He was a bit surprised to see Mary scrubbing one of the cake tins.

"Lizzy has baked a cake" she answered his unvoiced question. "But she was falling on her nose, so I told her to go upstairs. Jimmy is still asleep, so I can wash this and I really need something to do before  _I_  feel sleepy enough."

"Thanks" he emptied the teapot and set the cups in the dishwasher. "I... Is there anything you'd need, Mary?"

She frowned, looking up at him.

He sighed, trying to find the right words.

"Is there anything that Jimmy needs that you can't find, or get, or... or whatever. Anything I could help with."

She turned to look at him fully, leaning back on the sink.

"Why?"

"Because I run a charity that has more contacts that a standard human being can" he said simply. "If there is any kind of... help. Medicine, therapy, books - even specific food that could make a difference - and you can't get it, I suppose the foundation could."

She shook her head, smiling.

"No, William. There is no magic wand that could fix him. He is just as he is - and I have accepted the fact that he may never be 'healed'."

He poured himself a glass of water, to kill the time and gather his thoughts.

"I didn't mean it like this" he said, finally. "I know that there is no cure for certain problems. But I also know that there are easier and harder ways of resolving problems, and sometimes it's  _hard_  to gain access to the easier methods. Maybe he would need a speech therapist who won't just try to punch in the hours, or maybe additional swimming lessons with a trainer specialising in kids with development issues? Or maybe crayons that don't contain certain ingredients? One of my employees has a kid who is allergic to certain dyes, so she can't draw with normal coloured pencils. It turned out there is a company in Sweden that produces ones with alternative dyes. They wouldn't sell to a private person, but when we made an order as a foundation..." he shrugged. "So, you know. Stuff like this. Doesn't have to be revolutionary, but hey, if it helps, why not use it?"

She nodded slowly and turned back to the sink.

"Take a towel and dry these" she ordered simply. "Jimmy is fine, mostly. Just a bit... late, in some aspects. Mostly it's enough if I buy more shape recognition toys, plush animals with varying surfaces, jigsaw puzzles, this kind of thing. He doesn't need specific food, doesn't have allergies, is not bothered by tags on his clothes or similar stuff."

"Still, the offer stands" he said, taking a glass bowl and wiping it carefully. "I... I know it's hard to be a single parent of a child with no development problems. I can't imagine bringing up one that  _does_  need special consideration."

She handed him the last piece of the cake tin.

"I wasn't exactly a  _single_  parent in this" she said, unblocking the drain. "Elizabeth was much more than an aunt for Jimmy. The amount of time she and Mina spent with him when I needed a breath..."

"You did the same for Elizabeth and Mina at the time, right?"

"Mina was a year old  _and_  she didn't require being carried around with full body contact 24/7."

"But at the time neither of you had experience. When Jimmy appeared, you both already had the needed knowledge and you were both steadily employed."

She nodded, grimacing.

"We were both terrified that she would cry and we wouldn't hear her, or that she would wander away... Fortunately half of that wing had kids or were expecting, so they were pretty tolerant. They were more surprised with me living there as the only non-parent than with Lizzy moving in with Mina for that half year. I always explained that I prefer wailing babies to constant partying - and that was the reasoning that had worked for the Dean, too."

He looked at her hands, wiping the sink dry.

"I'm glad you were there" he said finally. "I..."

"I hated you" she interrupted him sharply. "I hated you for hurting her, for throwing away the chance you had. I hope it will work out this time, because if you fuck this up, William Darcy..."

"They won't find my body, yes, I know. Stand in a line. Georgiana is first."

"I knew I liked that girl. Now, go upstairs and please, check on my sister to make sure she didn't fall asleep in some weird place? I'll be along in a moment, just need to make myself some tea and sit for a moment in silence."

"Sure. Thank you, Mary."

"It... no problem. William."

 

#

 

Elizabeth had fallen asleep somewhere, to be sure, because there was no sign of movement from anywhere, but she wasn't in the girls' working room - and there was no trace of the bed that was supposed to be set up there. He stood still for a moment before he recalled that they had, in fact, only prepared the bed for Jackie in the girls' room, but never got around to making one up for Elizabeth, and the field beds were in the closet in his room, which she had not entered... Ah.

His study was dark, barely illuminated by a small desk lamp and the dying fire in the fireplace, but the bundle of blankets on the couch had some very Lizzy-like characteristics. A mop of hair on one end and a small, thin foot on the other, for example.

"Lizzy?" he touched the foot carefully, but she only pulled it in under the blankets, escaping from his touch. "Lizzy, do you want me to set up the bed for you here?"

No answer. She was probably so tired she fell asleep waiting for him and Charles to finish talking.

There were several options.

He could take the bed out and set it up in the working room. That would require some effort and would necessitate collecting warmer blankets and another duvet, because Elizabeth had left her bed to the children just as it was.

He could set it up out here, in his study, which was a bit warmer, due to the fireplace. Also, move private than the girls' room.

Or...

He bit the inside of his cheek for a moment.

_Yeah. Why not._

He picked her up, blankets and everything, and walked into his bedroom. Setting her down, removing the blankets - she had changed into her pyjamas, good - and covering her with the duvet (not "his" duvet - that was the one that was still in her bed) was a matter of seconds. Still, it almost woke her up.

"Will?" she mumbled, burrowing deeper under the covers.

"Sleep" he touched her cheek. "I need to work on something, you can sleep here."

"Wh're?"

"My bedroom. It's cold in the girls' room, you'll be better off here."

"Mhm" she opened her eyes for a moment, smiled at him and immediately fell asleep again.

"OK" he whispered, patting her shoulder. "I'll be just next door if you need something."

"Mm."

 

#

 

He was trying to make heads or tails of the budget proposal for yet another initiative that the foundation was supposed to support when he heard her stir. A quick glance at the clock told him he had been working for two and a half hours, so she had probably been asleep for more or less three. She'd either go back to sleep, or...

"Will?" she looked a bit lost, standing in the doorway, looking at him. "What am I...?"

"You fell asleep on the sofa" he explained. "I moved you to the bed, it's a bit more comfortable."

"But... I was supposed to sleep..." she frowned.

"Yes, but that room is cold. And you looked so tired I didn't want to move you there, anyway. My bed is a bit better than that foldable monstrosity, too."

"Yes, but, Will, we didn't discuss..."

He took off his glasses and pulled her closer, seating her on the chair's stuffed armrest.

"That's why I'm here and you were there" he said simply. "Also, I needed to look over these documents and that seemed like a perfect moment."

She sighed and leaned closer, putting her head on his shoulder and turning her face up at him.

"What are we going to do?"

"Well, you will go back to sleep" he punctuated this with a small kiss. "And I will try to conquer the budget calculation that had apparently been made with a crayon on a piece of packing paper, because it makes that little sense."

"Or..." she turned a bit and peered at the columns of numbers. "I could help you with that and we could both catch some sleep before our guests require our attention?"

"El..."

"This" she pointed out. "This doesn't make sense. Or someone doesn't know how VAT is calculated. See? The way they add and then... see? The number here should be the multiplication of this one, times seventeen" she marked the places with small pieces of a torn post-it note. "And because they don't know what the rules are..."

"Blimey" he whispered. "You're a bloody genius, love. And I've been looking at the whole sum for the last ten minutes, trying to track back... How did you see it?"

She shook her head.

"You would have found it the moment you stopped focusing on the big numbers at the end. I just saw the pattern that was wrong..." she frowned. "Now that you know they can't really count how VAT is applied, you can go back to the beginning and check all the tax and percentage calculations. Or I could help you, I'll just need a spreadsheet to make 100% sure I'm not making a mistake myself. But definitely, first adding VAT, multiplying the number of items, and then removing VAT should give you..."

"The basic before-VAT number, multiplied. At this isn't it."

"I wonder if this was done by accident or on purpose" she yawned, nestling closer to him now. "Because if they had... just used twenty items... You'd have seen it much sooner" she shivered with another, suppressed yawn.

"By making it seventeen they obfuscated the outcome" he frowned and closed the folder decisively, slapping a new post-it on top and writing "CHECK THE NUMBERS" on it. "Because normally noone can calculate easily if there are no round numbers involved."

"Or even ones. Even if it was sixteen, it would have been much more obvious."

"For you" he pointed out, but she shrugged.

"You don't have to see it consciously, but you'd have noticed it sooner, I'm sure. All the computer stuff is... eights and sixteens..." she shuddered again. "Can we go to bed now?"

"Sure" he started raising, but she hopped off and stretched.

"I need something to drink" she grimaced. "Not enough water during the day. I'll be right back, you..." she paused. "I'll be right back."

 

It was one of the fastest showers he had ever taken and still it included shaving.

He looked at himself in the mirror over the sink, trying to stare down his reflection.

_Come on, Will. Just sleeping. Hold her, make her feel safe. She..._

She was there when he entered the bedroom. A glass of water, a pitcher with some lemon slices in it, on the nightstand, and Elizabeth, again completely under the covers. He slipped in on the other side and immediately there was a small ball of warmth buried into his side.

"Will" she breathed and reached out, stabilising herself against him.

"Um. Lizzy?"

She adjusted herself again, head on his shoulder, nose pressed into his t-shirt, one hand curled up under her, the other thrown across his body.

"Sleep" she said softly. "We can talk about this tomorrow."

"I just..." he sighed. "Will you be moving back to... to the other room, when they leave?"

He felt her give something akin to a shrug.

"We can talk about this tomorrow?" she suggested. "I... It's nice like this, hm?"

_More than bloody nice._

But he was a grown man and this was Elizabeth, trusting him.

"Nice" he confirmed, gathering her closer, pulling her into a slightly better position, which she accepted with a small, warm sigh.

 

####

 

She woke up with a start.

The bed was large and empty, and she was not only fully dressed in her long sleeved shirt and yoga trousers, but carefully wrapped in a blanket and covered with a duvet. She was  _warm_.  
It wasn't purely physical warmth, either.  
She smiled to herself and fell back on the bed a bit.  
There was a piece of paper propped on the pitcher of water she had brought, with "E" written on top. She pulled it towards her and unfolded it.  
  
_Lizzy,_  
  
_We're taking the kids for a walk._  
_Rose and Mina are managing Jackie and Isabelle._  
_Jane and Mary will take care of breakfast_  
_I'll come to fetch you once everything is ready._  
_Sleep in._  
  
_W._  
  
"Oh."  
There were sounds all around her, but nothing close by. She could hear the girls outside, apparently playing on the lawn - she worried fleetingly whether the grass wouldn't be too wet, but... She shrugged. There were enough clothes in the house to change Jackie and Bella into if they got soaked.  
She relaxed into the pillow and closed her eyes.  
Just for a moment.  
  
#  
  
"Lizzy? There is a breakfast ready... Elizabeth?"  
She curled up, seeking the warmth that had been there for the whole...  
_...night. Argh._  
She sat up, wiping her eyes and looked as William, sitting on the edge of the bed.  
"What time is it?"  
"Nine-ish" he smiled. "Come on, get up. Everything is almost ready and the kids are getting washed after the walk - I must admit, I forgot how much energy children have at that age."  
"Will..."  
"And there is a plan for a small walk after breakfast, to let everyone see the gardens when there is still something to  _be_  seen here, before it all goes grey and empty..."  
"William!"  
He stopped, looking at her curiously.  
"All my things are in 'my' room" she explained, looking away. "And there are kids there now..."  
"Actually" he bit his lip. "I brought them over here."'  
She stared mutely for a moment.  
"Not everything!" he corrected quickly. "Just... a few things, so that you didn't have to..."  
Oh, God. They were now both bright red.  
"Ah" she cleared her throat. "Thanks. I suppose."  
He huffed softly.  
"Come on. Get dressed and come downstairs, or the kids will start gnawing on the table legs."  
  
#  
  
The breakfast was lavish. Jane and Mary had prepared enough to accommodate all the varied needs and appetites, which with eight children and six grownups wasn't that obvious. Fortunately most of the children (except for Jimmy, who preferred cereal) were happy to stuff themselves with scrambled eggs and toast, taking the pressure off their parents, except for the part of  _what_  was supposed to go on whose toast. Jackie managed by herself and Rose helped Isabelle to achieve the required level of butter on her slice. Charles was holding little Johnny away from his own fried bacon and trying to feed him something more appropriate (which meant that a sudden attack by a hungry Evelynosaur took him by surprise and deprived him of said bacon). Mary, assisted by Mina, was letting Jimmy work his way steadily, if a little sloppily, through a bowl of cornflakes.  
Everyone looked at her as she entered, trying to look as unruffled as she possibly could.  
"Mom, are you feeling better now?" Rose patted the chair next to her. "Dad said you needed to sleep in and we were not to make a sound upstairs."  
"Yes, thank you for this, kitten. I was up too long yesterday, I think."  
Georgiana hid her face in her oversized tea mug.

"And what were you doing so long, aunt Lizzy?" Isabelle piped up, rubbing the butter off her face with her sleeve and making Jane and Mary snicker.

"I was in the kitchen, taking care of certain preparations for today evening" she said mysteriously, sitting down next to Rose. "Now, any eggs left? And maybe a few bits of sausage?"

 

#

 

"Mom, can we go back outside? We were playing badminton with Jackie and Bella."

"I think Dad had some grand plan for a general walk outside, but you can go, just stay on the lawn. And take your rubber boots!"

She quickly turned and ran downstairs to check the fridge. The cake looked  _perfect_. And it was time to decorate it, as the girls were outside. She pulled out the rest of the cream and set up the mixer yet again, as Mary had cleaned a bit too thoroughly the night before.

Mary.

She froze for a moment with her hands on the jar, feeling of guilt catching up with her. They had let her sleep in, even though she was supposed to be their hostess. On the other hand, her sisters were surely more than able to tell William to piss off if he tried to make them do something they didn't wish to. Which meant they had all conspired to let her sleep longer. She felt the heat in her cheeks raising, so she rested her face on the cool container.

"Whip this cream, Lizzy, before it goes warm" she scolded herself.

She opened the freezer and took out the box of blackberries that had been waiting there.

_Pour the cream, add some proper vanilla sugar. Run the whisk. Test. Scrape the bowl, another round._

She never liked beating the whole amount at once - usually something went wrong when she was in a hurry and put the whole litre in the mixing bowl. Doing it a cup at a time let her avoid overwhipping and getting a bowl full of sweetened butter.

A small pan and bowl on the range were already heating up, melting the chocolate.

She checked around to avoid any stray children she could step on and picked the cake from the fridge. Securing it on the rotating stand went quickly and she could remove the band and start decorating.

A large, flat knife was stored in the same box as the stand, the decorating triangle and a box of piping tips next to it.

 _First, some more dulce de leche. Just because. And a dribble of the melted chocolate. Well, more than a dribble. More like a whole rain of it._  A moment in the fridge, she had time to clean up the table. Then a big blob of whipped cream.  _Always decorate from the top, Lizzy._ The flat knife in her right hand, she turned the stand with her left.

_Ah. Bliss. No thinking, just muscle memory._

She got the top even and smooth, bringing the cream over the edges and keeping them crisp. A bit more cream at the bottom, but this didn't have to be perfect. The piping bag, fitted with a star tip, was filled with cream and she started piping perfect little rosettes of stiff whiteness along the bottom of the cake, covering all the imperfections of the cream covering on that part. The thawed blackberries were next, so she picked the prettiest ones to put on top of the cake, in a round, and then surrounded them with another ring of cream rosettes.

"Ah" she said, throat suddenly dry.

The first cake for  _both_  of her daughters at the same time.

Very carefully, she put the piping bag in its stand and removed the cake to the fridge.

Then she took a moment to quietly break down at the table.

  
#  
  
The lunch was easy - there were more than enough ingredients for a variety of tortilla fillings in the boxes brought by Jane and Mary, and even the most suspicious children were tired and hungry enough to let themselves be fed a bit of everything, including guacamole and several kinds of bean paste. Rose and Mina had to be stopped from an attempt at a Scoville scale competition and Lizzy controlled the level of spiciness of their combinations from that moment.  
"You" she poked Mina in the shoulder "are supposed to  _sing_  in a week. And you know your throat is not yet up to the challenge. Actually, I shouldn't allow you to even leave the house or eat anything spicier than a toast with cheese."  
"But, Mom!"  
"I know" she kissed her younger daughter's temple. "Still, you better pay attention to what you're eating. And you, don't encourage her" she mussed up Rose's hair.  
"Aunt Lizzy, how big is the garden? We were walking for  _hours and hours_  and I still didn't see any kind of wall?" Isabelle asked around her tortilla.  
"Well, that would be the question to your uncle William" she demurred. "But from what I remember, it's at least half a mile of formal flower gardens, then another of orchards... No, orchards make a mile, I think. Then there are the vegetable gardens a bit to the left, and these change every year, and on the right there is the orangery and the glass hothouse. And there was the blackberry bramble that I've started... I think it is still there... Will?"  
"It is" Rose confirmed. "I always liked it, and aunt Catherine always complained I'm messing up my clothes with them."  
Elizabeth grinned a bit.  
"And there should be the raspberry patch, too, unless the gardeners didn't maintain it. And the hazels, next to it, I think."  
"And the currant bushes, too" William joined her. "And we have a small foil tunnel to grow strawberries, but it's taken down at this time of the year."  
"You have, like, your  _own_  strawberries?" Yola's eyes widened. "Wow. Wow."  
"If you ever come here in June, you can see it" William offered, glancing at Charles.  
"Mummy!?"  
Jane sighed.  
"Yes, well. Now we will have to, or they won't stop reminding us! Terrible, we were planning to never come here again."  
"Mummy!!!"  
  
#  
  
"Mary, what  _are_  you doing?"  
Mary was, in fact, flat on her back in the middle of the corridor.  
"Have you ever checked the ceiling here, Liz?"  
Elizabeth raised her head, trying to understand...  
...ah.  
She blushed.  
"Seriously."  
"Yep."  
"Do you think it was commissioned...?"  
"No, I rather think painter was bored to death."  
"So he drew... this man, and..."  
"This is definitely not human, if you were looking for this confirmation. Neither is  _that_ " Mary pointed out another piece. "Looks like a stylised mermaid. With two tails."  
"Dear... Oh. I hope the girls didn't see  _that_."  
Mary snorted.  
"Who do you think  _showed_  me these?"  
Elizabeth squeezed her eyes shut and shook her head.  
  
####  
  
Mom's surprise was the cake - not a very surprising surprise, but the girls were not expecting anything of that  _size_. Dad's surprise was much less expected, but received by everyone with cheer. A great bonfire, set in the remote corner of the gardens, far from both the trees and the house, was waiting for the girls to lit it when everyone made their way down there after the nap (for the younger ones) and some board games. Uncle Charles had been tasked with bringing all kinds of snacks and candy, driving the small electric car the gardeners used to transport their tools, and the cake was secured in the backseat and tended to by Mom on the way.  
They set it up on a stone table installed there by some enterprising great-great-grand-father and lit four candles - two "1's" and two "4's", making two "14's" on the opposite sides of the cake, one for each of them. They eyed each other over the cream-and-berries concoction.  
"Come on, girls. Each on her side, now, aaand..."  
And Mom pulled a guitar from somewhere, and everyone was singing "Happy Birthday", and then they were blowing out the candles, never breaking their gaze.  
_In a year, here, all of us._  
_In a year, here, more of us._  
The candles were taken out, the cake was being cut, the slices were distributes, the groans of appreciation were voiced, the little cousins were milling around and wishing them "evelyfink beft" (Evelynosaur) "cookies!" (Jimmy) "lots of candy" (Yola) very stiff "all the best" (Jackie) and "whatever you wish, but I'd want a kitten!" (Isabelle). Johnny limited himself to hugging their knees at uncle Charles' prompting.  
And then there were the presents.  
  
####  
  
"And now I know why Mom had been so sleepy recently. What I don't know is how she managed to take our sizes and make  **that**."  
**That**  were two dresses, identically cut, but varying in colour. Mina's was all green, black and copper, with dark gold inserts in the skirt and an overlay of metallic green crocheted lace. Rose couldn't decide whether to salivate over her own gown or be a bit angry at Mom for the "older sister" jibe, but the first option won. It was an Elsa dress that was better than any Elsa dress she had ever seen. Steel blue, with silver shimmer from a layer of tulle, silver bodice with blue metallic lace on the front and a blue string to lace it on the back.  
"This is a gown to end all princess gowns" aunt Jane said in a worshipful tone. "This... Nobody can top *that*."  
"Next year I'll dress them in grass skirts and we'll claim it's supposed to be Moana" Mom said tiredly and stretched on the bench, her head on some strategically placed cushions, allowing herself to be hugged by both of them at the same time.  
"Now, from us" aunt Jane handed them two sturdy cardboard boxes. "Let's call this... completing the set. Also, a little bird had informed me that my previous gift had been confiscated, so here's a replacement."  
Rose's box contained the whole set - the pliers, identical with ones that aunt Anne had taken away - the hammer and an equally outrageously pink screwdriver. Mina's box, obviously, didn't hold the hammer.  
"Where did you get this abomination, Janey?" Mom raised her head from her place on the bench.  
"There is a small shop near our place that stocks these, and a few more items like this. I saw a set of home improvement tools in fabulous purples, actually. Proper rubber handles and all. I was considering buying something for you, too."  
"I have a measuring tape with a flower pattern, nothing can beat that."  
"A purple hammer."  
"Nah."  
"Purple-handled pliers."  
"Meh."  
"Purple box-knife."  
"Double meh."  
"Purple spirit level."  
"M... ok, that's one I haven't seen."  
"You mean you've seen a purple hammer?"  
"More like lilac, but yes, I have. Girl, I've seen a pink-handled  _axe_."  
Dad had a weird expression on his face as he rose with two more boxes and they exchanged worried glances.  
"Now, I think one gift..." he smirked. "Will be freeing you of the stable chores. I think Rose will remember from now on that she is supposed to take care of Star properly and, Mina" he gathered his younger daughter closer. "I admire your willingness to accompany Rose in this punishment, but don't think that you had fooled me for a moment. You are perfectly petrified by being in close quarters with animals that much taller than you and you were carefully keeping away from any direct contact with them, weren't you, ducky?"  
Mina sighed and nodded.  
"I..." she shrugged. "I tried, because, you know..." she shot a glance at Rose who rolled her eyes. "I didn't want you to feel like I'm leaving you alone in there!"  
Rose bumped her shoulder affectionately.  
"You can still come. I mean, throwing the hay down from the loft won't bring you in contact with Star. Or taking the wheelbarrow out. Or bringing the water in."  
"Yeah, well. I could, I suppose. As long as you don't expect me to come any closer to Dad's horse. Star is fine. Star is nice and she isn't  _that_  tall. But I'd rather not get any closer to..." she made an uncertain gesture "...ah, Hector. Than necessary. Sorry, Dad."  
"Not an issue, Mina. You two don't have to be identical. In fact, we'd rather you weren't. Right, Lizzy?"  
Mom waved a hand from her spot on the bench.  
"They are annoying enough as they are. We need to have some way to tell them apart."  
"Well, then. There is a  _separate_  gift for each of you. This" he handed a box to Rose "is both for you and for Star. And this, well" he winked at Mina "I suppose your mother will want to borrow it, but stay firm. Come on. Open them."  
"Thank you, Dad" Mina frowned at the well-wrapped box and started methodically removing paper. "What..."  
"A gel saddle pad! Wow, Dad! And the gloves! Perfect!"  
Rose's enthusiasm made her peek into the package, but she could only see a mass of something... dark?  
"It's a gel... pad" her sister explained, not really bringing more meaning to the previous exclamation. "This goes under the saddle. Makes it more comfortable for the horse. And grooming gloves, so I can, like, brush her without an actual brush."  
"Ah!" Mina could only nod in appreciation. Anything that made the horse more comfortable would be probably a nice thing.  
"And what did you get?" Rose poked at her box.  
"Ah, this..." she finally found the piece of tape Dad had secured the paper with and uncovered a gleaming blue and aluminium box with letters DREMEL printed on a side. "Dad! I... Wow. I mean... Mom, look!"  
"Mina, what... Ah, a minidrill! Fabulous!"  
Everyone was suddenly focused on Mina.  
"Dad,  _how did you know?!_ "  
"I... kind of guessed?" the box was left on the grass and Mina was hugging Dad in a crushing grip. "I suppose I got this one correctly, too?"  
Rose plastered herself on his other side.  
"Yeah, Dad. I suppose you have. She had been mooning over this thing more than over Teddy, I think."  
"Rose!" she had to duck an attempt at a hit from Mina.  
"Well, you did! And you keep their catalogue under your bed!"  
"...ff!"  
"Mina! Language!"  
"I didn't say anything!" Mina stuck out her tongue at Rose.  
"Now, ladies, if you don't calm down, you won't see  _my_  gift" aunt Mary was holding something small and... tickets?  
"Um" Mina coughed.  
"Right" Rose straightened herself. "We're, like, totally serious."  
"Yeah."  
"Very well. William, cover your eyes. Ladies, this is an IOU for tomorrow. You two, your mother, aunt Jane and me, we are going to Matlock, for some shopping" and with that, aunt Mary dropped a small business card with "2 perfectly fitted bras" printed on it into each of their hands.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So. What do you think about Teddy? He is becoming much more important than I've ever predicted him to be. Weird.  
> Also, my characters went completely crazy and took over the narrative. Half of what happened in this chapter was NOT planned.  
> And Little Bingleys? :)
> 
> Important links:
> 
> Marta Argerich performing the Polonaise "Heroique": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCSEwfqs-VM (pay attention at 5:30, here's that smile)  
> Rafal Blechacz performing the same: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m0olrJAmX60


	18. Cause home is where you are - p1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sunday with the family

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As the chapters became unbearably long (17 went over 27k words...) and it's sometimes hard to read them through, I'll be posting what is, in my editor, parts of chapters. They will still be of a healthy size - 8k words each, I suppose - but much easier to manage. Also, posted more often :)

Sunday morning was unnaturally bright and sunny for the middle of October and Elizabeth woke up cranky and wishing she could just lie in her bed until noon, when the sun would not be shining so brightly into her room. She cracked one eye open and surveyed her surroundings with a bit of a surprise.

Either she had slept much longer than she expected - and so everything was terribly delayed - or there was something wrong with the sun. Or...

William rolled to his side and pulled her closer, curling up behind her, wrapping his warmth all around her.

"Sleep" he mumbled. "It's eight."

"How..."

"Just checked. Sleep. We still have..." yawn "...at least half an hour. My alarm is set to half past."

He buried his nose in her hair and pretended to promptly fall asleep.

"William" she hissed. "We'll need to..."

"No, we don't need to do anything" he pulled her closer. "We take that half hour, we get up like civilised people, we eat breakfast with everyone and then you ladies can go shopping. But there is no hurry."

"But..."

He pressed a kiss to her collarbone.

"Sleep."

She could only feel the warmth all around her.

She slept.

 

####

 

Mina was looking miserable and Rose didn't know whom she wanted to hit more - her sister for being such a ninny or Strickland, for making her so. She sat up as her sister heaved another sigh at the phone.

And it was only half past six.

"Call him" she said sharply. "Even if you wake him, he will be more than happy to hear from you."

"I..." Mina looked at her bedspread. "I can't."

"Because you're silly and you told him that you're not supposed to talk until the competition. And now he is miserable, and you're miserable and _you_ are making _me_ miserable. So please, please, _please_ for all that is holy. Call him. Or _text_ him at least!"

Mina's lower lip wobbled.

_Oh, no. No no no no no._

She moved across their room and sat next to her sister, touching her shoulder.

"Mina, what happened? Did he do something? Did he say something? Should _I_ punch him? I don't like hitting people, but I'll hit Strickland if I have to... But it all looked fine on Friday, didn't it? We just saw him at the door, and I thought is was all OK!"

"Rose...!"

Not good. Mina was sobbing.

"What. Did. He. Do."

"Nothing! Teddy didn't do _anything_!"

She relaxed her shoulders - she never even noticed she had tensed up so.

"So what is wrong? Why are you crying into your phone?"

"I can't call him!"

"Mina, you're not being..."

"I don't have his number."

That stopped Rose cold.

"You what?"

"I never... I mean, first, before I was sick, when I was _you_ , well, I didn't want to, you know."

"Thank you for that."

"And then, we were back, and then Davison, and detention, and the practice, and I only saw him when we were really really busy and then I told him..."

"And then it was too late and you never thought to ask him for his number."

Mina curled up on her bed, turning away from Rose.

"Yeah."

"So. You don't have his number. He doesn't have yours - because _nobody in our school_ has your number, except for me. But you know what you have?"

Mina glanced at her suspiciously from under the blanket.

"What?"

"An older sister" Rose brandished her own phone. "With an extensive network of varied contacts."

"Wh-what?" Mina sat up, wiping her nose on her sleeve.

Rose handed her a box of tissues and tapped at her phone.

"There is that theory that between every two persons on the planet there are no more than six handshakes, Dad told me once. So I suppose if we look carefully, we should be able to find a link between us and Teddy that will not be very long..." she tapped her screen some more. "So, you know, we could probably call Marika, whose sister is in Teddy's homeroom, and she probably has the number."

Mina's eyes widened.

"Could you? I even don't have Marika's number..."

Rose nodded and scrolled down in her phone.

"Or I could do this" she pressed on the screen and put the phone to her ear. "Wipe your face, silly... Yeah, hi, Strickland. Sorry for... Ah, OK. You see, there is one small thing. That no-talking thing? Not going very well. Here" she pressed her phone into Mina's hand and jumped off her bed. "You have five minutes."

"I... Rose..."

"Clock's ticking. Also, my microphone is very good and he will hear everything you say now."

She watched Mina pick up the phone from where it had dropped on her comforter and put it gingerly to her ear.

"Hi, Teddy."

She shook her head and headed to the bathroom. She would need to brush her teeth properly to avoid getting cavities due to these two.

 

####

 

The breakfast was just as boisterous as everything the day before.

Jimmy had found a new love and was now devouring his third crepe with cottage cheese and blackberry preserve, while looking with fascination at Elizabeth, who was rolling the next one, while Rose spread the filling on yet another one.

"Where is Mina, kitten?"

Rose rolled her eyes.

"Upstairs, I suppose. I just hope she..."

"Thanks" Mina appeared next to her and slipped Rose's phone into her back pocket.

"That was more than five minutes" Rose remarked calmly and Mina shrugged with a slightly dreamy smile. Elizabeth watched them with narrowed eyes as Mina pressed into Rose's side and picked a crepe from the stack.

"Ladies?" she raised her brows in a question, but they just shrugged.

"It's nice to have a sister" Mina answered, still smiling, and reached for the jar of Nutella.

"Should I be worried?"

"No, unless you want me to slap you" Jane remarked mildly.

"Hey! I am just..."

"Rose's lent me her phone when I needed it" Mina explained before dropping some raisins on her nutella-slathered crepe and rolling it up. "So. Thanks."

"I just hope you added..."

"Yes, yes. And I've sent him a text, too."

"Good. I wouldn't like to be serving as some kind of go-between..." Rose made up another crepe for Jimmy and handed it to him, checking with Mary, who was sitting next to him, watching him in slight alarm.

"Elizabeth, what did you put in these preserves?" she finally asked weakly. "He hadn't eaten an honest breakfast like that in... I don't remember."

"I'd mostly blame the air and yesterday evening excitement" William came up to Elizabeth and sneaked his arms around her waist. "Now, you go and eat, love, I'll take over here. Sorry I'm so late, but Charles had a little problem with Johnny's crib and it required both of us to resolve it."

Charles - still in his sleeping t-shirt and shorts - joined them, carrying a very, very excited little Jonathan over his shoulder.

"Jackie, be a dear and bring me his high chair" he groaned. "He's as squirmy as an armful of eels and my reflexes aren't what they used to be. Ta" he plopped his son in the plastic seat and secured him with a seatbelt.

"What happened?" Jane raised her eyes from where she was watching Evelyn conquer a plate of 'scrammled eg' and a thin sausage (which she used mostly to waggle it at her sisters, to their disgust).

"I was shaving and Johnny managed to make the brakes on the crib wheels let go. Then he proceeded to run in it in such a way that he moved it across the room and wedged it between our bed and the wall. I needed Will to move the bed a bit, because I couldn't get the crib out without damaging the wall even more than Johnny had already scratched it."

Jane's hand flew up to her lips, covering a smile.

"I'm so sorry, William" she said finally. "Is this something that will..."

"No worries, we can live with that. A few surface scratches, nothing more. But I still wonder how that little gentleman managed to get the crib that far...!"

"Morning" Georgiana looked like she hadn't slept. "Ah... What's that smell?"

 

#

 

Having rescued the toast from suddenly stuck toaster and aired the dining room properly they finished their breakfast and children were removed outside by William and Charles, leaving the ladies (ages fourteen and up) inside to discuss their plans.

"We'll take my car" Jane decided quickly. "This way we can all fit comfortably and we won't have to coordinate between two cars on parking and what not."

"Hmm?" Georgiana finished stacking the plates to be taken to the kitchen. "Won't you fit into any of the smaller ones? There's only five of you."

Jane and Elizabeth glanced at each other.

"Georgie, there is _six_ of us" Elizabeth pointed out with a smile. "Now, girls, fill in the dishwasher and we'll clean up everything here. Just remember to put the cups in the sink, Mrs Reynolds say the washer chips them. Boys can put Jackie on washing them once they are done exploring the gardens."

"B-but I..."

"No buts" Elizabeth caught her almost-sister-in-law's hand and pulled her to the side. "We're going to Matlock for a bit of shopping and you're coming with us. The girls need some new bras and swimsuits, _I_ need a swimsuit and you, my dear, are in _dire_ need of proper brafitting."

"Elizabeth!" the younger woman hissed.

"Georgiana. You can't run around in this" Elizabeth pointed out a slightly ratty strap of a blue bra peeking from under Georgie's t-shirt. "Come on. You _need_ an intervention. I'll let you go after one, but you need at least that one."

"Lizzy!"

"I'll burn this blue thing" she threatened. "Come on. I have it on a good authority that you've had less than a satisfactory birthday party - if you can call it that - and I intend to make this up to you."

The younger woman frowned.

"Elizabeth, you don't have to _mother_ me. I'm not fourteen."

"You are thirty-three and you will not be mothered, but you will be older-sistered to our best abilities" Jane joined them, smiling at Elizabeth's attempt to bully her taller friend.

"But..."

"Come on, aunt Georgie" Mina sneaked under her shoulder. "Just us girls?"

Georgiana sighed.

"OK, but..."

"Yeah, I know. I'll tell the assistants to find something perfectly smooth and without frills. Come on."

 

####

 

Aunt Jane's car was big, and after removing all the kids seats to the back they could sit comfortably, aunt Jane at the wheel and Mom next to her with a navigation app showing the way. Aunt Mary and aunt Georgiana took the second row and Mina and Rose spread over the back seat, with Rose pointing out interesting spots on the way.

"Put that phone away" she finally said when she noticed Mina peeking at the screen. "Family shopping trip now."

"But..."

She plucked the phone from her sister's fingers and handed it forward - with her own, to make it fair - to aunt Georgiana.

"Could you hold them for us?" she asked quickly. "Or Mina will go all distracted."

"Rooo-se!"

"He said he'd be on a full day training today, right?"

Mina nodded reluctantly.

"And he isn't supposed to have his phone on him, right?"

"Yeah."

It was a resentful 'yeah'.

Aunt Mary twisted in her seat to look at them.

"Who 'he'?"

"Rose" Mom's voice from the front seat made her shut her mouth before she even said a word. "There is a boy at school that likes Mina, that's it. Rose, stop it."

"But, Mom!" Mina piped up. "She's, like, right. It's just that..." she sighed. "I mean... I don't know!"

"Sounds like me at thirteen" aunt Jane remarked. "Andrea was in year ten and looked like an artistic vision, with his black curls, dreamy dark eyes and permanent tan, due to him being mostly Italian. I was tripping over my own feet every time I saw him. He asked me for a time once and I couldn't find my watch on my hand."

"I'm not _that_ bad!" Mina protested. "It's just that it's _complicated_."

"What isn't, though?" aunt Jane turned the car in the direction of a small shopping centre. "Is this the shop, Lizzy?"

"Looks like it" Mom clicked the phone off. "Now, ladies. The first aim of this outing - getting the girls some bras for everyday use, and at least one sports bra and a swimsuit each. Second, Georgiana. Third, us. So please, let's keep it that way."

"I'm good" aunt Mary moved her seat to allow them to get out. "Just been shopping recently. But I will take the girls to look for something interesting in other shops. You can then, well, _indulge_."

Rose watched the grownups with suspicion.

Mina pushed by her, getting out of the car.

"They want to pick something sexy" she whispered and rolled her eyes. "Come on. Let's get this over with and we'll see what else we can find here. Maybe there is a craft shop here or something. We need to find a gift for Mom's birthday, too, and I'd rather start early."

Rose stiffened. She hadn't taken her card _or_ anything but her phone, at all.

"Ah, money..."

Mina tapped her pocket.

"Dad caught me at the last moment when we were leaving and said that he'd go to the bank this week and get me a card like you have, but for the time being, he gave me some cash, in case we saw something we really liked."

"Oh. OK."

She didn't really know how she was feeling about that.

Dad was, well. _Hers_. Mom was Mina's.

Right?

She frowned, trying to understand why this was leaving a bad taste on her tongue.

"Rose, come on!" aunt Mary pulled her shoulder. "Let's get you two outfitted and then we can see what else can be found in this place. I'm curious about the textile museum, actually."

 

####

 

The girls were in dire need of... a lot. Both of them had grown almost two inches since spring, so part of their clothes suddenly stopped being adequate, and both had put on some mass (and, especially, volume) here and there that definitely needed more support than it was getting with their current possessions.

There were the bras that she had bought for Rose in September, which, after quick discussion, they simply divided between themselves. There were Mina's older bras, no longer really really fitting, but serviceable, in case of a crisis. There was the black monstrosity that had apparently been the outcome of some mistaken intervention of Anne's that had been quietly deposited into a box of "let's deal with them later" items that Elizabeth was planning to undo and redo once she had the workspace she needed.

And Rose's riding bra, which seemed rather uncomfortable despite being, theoretically, a sports model.

And their swimsuits, which were less than perfect, being both slightly too short and having been used in a lake for the whole summer.

The shop offered _everything_ and the staff seemed competent, so they divided themselves - Jane and Elizabeth picking the suggestions and bringing them to the girls and Mary and Georgiana serving as sounding boards.

"Too small."

"Too loose."

"Lord, NO."

"Acceptable."

"Is there a bigger cup?"

"Oh, I like this one. I wonder if they have one my size" Georgiana helped Rose tighten the strap a bit.

Jane stopped for a moment and turned Georgiana around, looking at her critically.

"28F, I suppose" she said and returned with one in a moment. "Try it out."

Soon, the girls were out, holding their choices with twin expressions of relief and the grownups bickered about the payment a bit, with Georgiana, who had hastily thrown on a blouse, joining them suddenly.

"I'll take the swimsuits, Lizzy" she snatched the two chosen ones. "I... I'm sorry, but the present I was planning to... well, first they delayed it and then, yesterday, they just cancelled the order. So I was casting about for an appropriate idea and now I think I have it. Hence, the swimsuits."

Mina looked at her with a little frown.

"Lucy told me that the school is still trying to make a schedule for the swimming pool lessons... a card, yes, thank you... and so you won't be having swimming outings with the school for some time yet. So, you will be going with me."

Rose snatched a glance at Elizabeth, who was nodding with approval.

"This is a lovely idea, Georgie. Let me know when you'd be going, I would, maybe, join you...?"

Georgiana retrieved the package and moved to the side, making room for Mary.

"You" she nodded at Elizabeth "will be preparing for a wedding. Not sure what that would include, but I've heard these can be complicated, even if you've going small. So, in order to give you all the time and all the quiet you'll need, I'm taking these two off your hands, two to three times a week. Of course you can join us, Lizzy, but I thought you can make use of a little time to yourself."  
_And with Will, right, Georgie?_

Elizabeth half-smiled and accepted. And the girls certainly seemed excited.

_They may be all grown up and responsible, but I'd rather they didn't just grow out of being fine with being accompanied to the pool by their aunt. Well, Georgie is a cool aunt, so they won't be hearing anything stupid from their friends..._

_I wonder how old they will be before I manage to finally let go, just a bit._

And she wasn't sure she was more worried about Mina, for whom, despite a month and a half spent there, the area was still pretty much an unknown or about Rose, who was the unknown for _her_. She was definitely worried about _both_ of them, just not for the same reasons.

She shook this thought off and picked up the rest of the choices, which was, at that point, just a sports bra for Mina.

"And I'll pay for this. Mary, we'll call you once we're done here, but text me if you find a textile shop or a craft shop, there should be one, I think."

The moment the girls and Mary marched out of the shop, both she and Jane turned towards Georgiana, who stood like a rabbit in the headlights.

"'Lucy', you say?"

Her not-yet-sister-in-law stammered.

"Come on, Georgie. Time to make sure I _can_ burn that blue scrap of material you mistook for a bra. What were you trying on? This steel blue thing? Hop, hop, into the changing room with you. Jane, find me a bunch of 28Fs and FFs without any lace and with flat, plain straps."

"You said _one_!"

"One which you'll pick. But you may have to try on a lot."

"You're enjoying it, you cruel woman."

"Get in the changing room, little sister, and wait there."

She saw Georgiana bit her lip and her eyes fill with tears.

"God, Georgie, what's wrong?" she pulled the taller woman to the small sofa by the changing rooms. "I'm sorry, we went too far, right? We can leave now, I mean, it's not like you _have to_ buy..."

"It's not _that_ " Georgiana whispered and breathed spasmodically. "It's..." she waved, unable to find a word. "'little sister'?"

"Oh, come here" Elizabeth pulled her closer - hugging her as much as she could, with their height difference. "Yes, you are my little sister. Even though you're so much taller than me. Now, here, try this one. Big sister speaking now."

"Also" Jane dangled a very nice, no-lace, solid black bra in front of her. "Who is Lucy?"

 

####

 

The centre was full of clothing shops, which they happily ignored in search of Something For Mom.

"How much did Dad give you?"

"Thirty" Mina patted her pocket. "I don't think I have a lot to spend it on, so we can use it for a present for Mom."

Aunt Mary looked around and pointed out a bench, a little out of the way.

"Let's sit there and make a proper plan, so we don't just spend time trying to work out what we want. Do you have _any_ ideas?"

They looked at each other and shrugged.

"I thought it should be something silly" Mina finally said. "Mom always buys stuff that she needs. And now she will have everything that she _needs_ , because, like, Pemberley is filled with everything. Last year I bought her a set of pink silicone spatulas and so on, because someone said that our kitchen is so masculine, so we decided to just add a lot of pink and purple, because we started laughing every time we saw one of these."

"Well, they are in the kitchen now, I wonder what Mrs Reynolds will say" Rose snickered. "But, well, I have absolutely no idea what to buy. It should be pretty, though."

"But something that will be a little bit useful, somehow. Mom wouldn't want something _useless_."

"Okay, so, pretty, somewhat useful and possibly silly?" aunt Mary summed up.

They nodded.

"Let's go have a look at the centre directory. I wouldn't rule out the clothing shops, but let's see what _else_ we can find here."

On their way, they passed several shops that looked promising, but neither could find anything actually interesting in them.

Until Rose noticed the socks.

A variety of ankle and knee-high socks, leggings, tights and stockings of all kinds, colours and patterns, to be exact.

"This" she pointed out something in the middle, where a number of plastic legs showcased the patterned tights.

"Yes" Mina had already changed the direction.

They only heard aunt Mary's surprised 'what?' faintly as they entered the shop.

They pointed out what they wanted. They asked for a nice gift-wrap, to avoid Mom getting an accidental peek later during the day.

They carefully stored it in aunt Mary's sizable messenger bag.

It was the perfect gift.

Useful. Pretty. Definitely silly.

Mom would love it.

 

####

 

The very idea of buying _bras_ with more than just utility in mind was something she was not used to. It was...

...weird. Unusual. To buy clothes not only because she felt she liked them but also because, maybe, probably, William would like them.

She frowned, looking at the swimsuit she chose. This was definitely utilitarian.

But the bras were a completely different story.

Well, what was done, was done, and what was bought... could be returned. Ha.

She had to think for a moment about that morning. And the evening, when she had to take a few deep breaths before she even entered Will's bedroom.

 

#

 

_It had been easier on Friday evening - mostly because it had been Will who had carried her there, and when she came from the kitchen, after fetching the water, he hadn't been in bed yet. This time she had been busy helping the girls store the presents, checking the storage of the leftovers and making sure - again - that Rose and Mina were not keeping Jackie up. They were not, but it still took a bit of time, and when she emerged from the shower and stood at the door to William's room, she hesitated._

_Maybe she should have gone and slept in the study. The sofa there was unusable for a large man like William, but was more than adequate for someone her size. But what would he feel then? Rejected? Ignored?_

_On the other hand, she had recently made the decision not to live her life based on the expectations of others and especially not on the feeling of guilt -_ _**but what will he feel if I do what I want?** _

_Yet, actually... She_ _**wanted** _ _this. She wanted to curl up in his bed, feel the mattress dip when he moved, to let herself be surrounded by the bulwark of pillows and his body. Despite everything, her brain was still wired to link that bed with safety._

_She wanted that safety, that stability, that secure base._

_She had been balancing without a net for thirteen years. Between her own needs and paternal mix of neglect and demand, between the society norms she had to adhere to for Mina's wellbeing and her own personal beliefs, between "what will the neighbours say" of her mother and aunts and her own heartfelt "neighbours can piss off" that had earned her a stern talking-to from her distressed parents._

_**...as shaky as a fiddler on a roof...!** _

_She could still go and sleep in the study. It would mean she would spend the night wishing she was somewhere else and it would leave William alone - and probably disappointed. What would be the gain?_

_She wouldn't have to consider what her daughters and sisters thought about it all. Nobody would have been able to say that she had been too easy - too easy to forgive him, too easy to accept him, too easy to get into bed with him again._

_That was the crux of the matter._

_There were questions she had to ask herself._

_Would her sisters judge her negatively for seeking the comfort of his company, what with her being a grown woman and a mother of two - and these two_ _**his** _ _children?_

_**No.** _

_Would their daughters judge her, or even think about the problem at all, once they put two and two together?_

_**That would depend on how they were introduced to the idea.** _

_Was the theoretical societal disappointment in her being too easy - giving in to her need of William's closeness too early - enough to deter her from following her own wishes in that area?_

_**No.** _

_She opened the door._

_Will was already in bed, reading. Square, thick-rimmed glasses perched on his nose gave him a startingly soft image._

_He looked up, watching her as she closed the thick door and leaned against them._

_"Switch the main light off, will you?" he suggested, nodding towards the bedside lamp._

_She patted around for the switch blindly for a moment, unable to look away from him. Once she found it and the room was semi-dark, she found it slightly easier to relax, but the sound of a book and the glasses being put on the side table suggested Will had not been planning to read once she joined him. Her steps wavered, but she quickly placed her clothes on the chair next to the wardrobe and, trying to move before her doubts caught up with her, slid under the duvet and dropped onto the pillows._

_"Liz?"_

_She sighed._

_"I... I don't even know what is wrong with me" she blurted out. "It's like I can't think properly...!"_

_"Come here, on your side now" she felt him turn her, her back to him, and then these large, warm hands covered her shoulders._

_And kneaded. And kneaded. Again. Again._

_He moved lower and worked on the little area between her shoulderblades, then trailed down her spine and slowly, carefully, relaxed each muscle group separately. She felt herself melting into the soft mattress, slowly becoming one with the pillows and the sheet._

_"Roll" he whispered, pushing her to lie on her stomach. "You are tense all over. You are tired_ _**and** _ _tense and even a hot shower isn't relaxing you enough. Just lie like this and let me do the work, hm?"_

_"But, Will..."_

_"I know, it would work better if we had some appropriate oil and you weren't wearing the shirt, but" he dropped a kiss on the nape of her neck "Here and now we'll make do. Don't think and, for a moment, try not to worry about anything, if possible."_

_Despite the missing (or superfluous) elements, the massage worked. By the time he had chased the tension away from her whole upper body, she was barely awake and communicating with him only with soft sighs. She never even resisted as he rolled her again to her side and pulled her closer, carefully lining up their bodies to ensure the maximum touching surface for the most shared body heat._

_"Sleep" he said softly._

_She slept._

 

#

 

She looked at the bras she was holding and made the decision.

She dropped the only plain, utilitarian one back where she took it from and brought the rest to the front counter.

The young woman at the register raised her eyebrows at the sight.

"Would you maybe like to join our club? Considering the amount you've all spent today..." she blushed. "I mean, it's not always that we get _that_ kind group."

Elizabeth considered it for a moment.

"Why not" she smiled. "What are the discounts?"

The cashier brightened and started rattling off the potential benefits awaiting each member.

Soon, the little plastic card added to her wallet and the small fortune in bras in her backpack, she joined the rest. They stopped for a snack in one of the cafes, avoiding stuffing themselves too much - they'd be eating a big Sunday dinner with everyone back at home. The girls were smiling at each other like crazy. Mary was looking rather smug, too. Jane and Georgiana were checking off points on a TO DO list they had created when Elizabeth had been still dithering whether to buy all that she found or only the two that spoke to her the loudest.

"So, what did you two plan?" she asked over a cup of latte she had been craving for the whole day.

"We still need to buy a few things for the dinner" Jane tapped her phone. "But we should be able to cover everything by a single visit to whatever market may be on the way. Charles and Will had reported a definite demand for carrots and celery, and they ask us to buy basically any kind of vegetable we think the kids would eat. The roast is supposedly almost done, with as many potatoes as they could fit in the pan safely."

"Which means at least an hour more" Mary added. "So we have a lot of time to finish here and pick the vegetables. Elizabeth, there is a paper craft store here, you could have a look at it with the girls and we'd meet at the car, hm?"

She found herself herded towards a - supposedly - fascinating shop by her daughters, but as she glanced back at her sisters, they were already engrossed in some discussion, with Georgiana pointing out things on a list she had just pulled out of her backpack.

_Uh-oh._

 

#

 

Once they were home and the three eldest children were herded into the kitchen and put to cleaning the veggies, Elizabeth and the other three chased William and Charles upstairs to ensure the smaller kids were at least passably clean for their meal and they started setting the table.

"Lizzy, have you given any thought to what kind of music you want me to play?" Georgiana asked, bringing in the bread baskets. "I will need some time to prepare..."

Elizabeth bit her lip.

"Would you, really? I mean, I wanted to ask you, but..."

"Lizzy. Really. I _know_ you want these two to be your witnesses" she nodded towards Jane and Mary. "But I want to participate, too. So. A harp. Imagine what I could play for you."

"I can't imagine what one can play on the harp, at all" Jane provided cheerfully. "What _can_ you play, Georgie?"

Georgiana shrugged.

"Basically, if you ask, I can play it. I just need enough time. Harp doesn't have piano's range, of course, but there are a lot of harp covers of popular stuff. I could even play some Disney tune, if you wished" she winked at Elizabeth, who felt her cheeks heat up.

"Georgie! At the wedding?"

"Why not? Like, if I played 'Let it go', that would fit, for both of you..." she stuck a tongue out at Elizabeth and swiftly turned back towards the kitchen.

"That's not _that_ silly, you know, Lizzy" Mary started counting the cutlery. "We could pick a small medley of appropriate Disney themes. Starting with something from Cinderella, I suppose. You are marrying an owner of a half of the shire. Hey!" she ducked under a balled-up napkin Elizabeth had send her way. "Just quoting you!"

 

#

 

The dinner was absolutely delightful, messy and chaotic in the best way possible. Johnny had decided that peas can only be eaten by lining them up in a row and sucking in each of them separately, creating the most disgusting sound in the county (or so Jackie claimed).

Jackie decided to try to mimic everything Rose and Mina did, which would have been fine had they been eating the same thing. As an effect she ended up with a plate heaped with vegetables and had to eat almost all of it, despite her protests. What she didn't, went into a box with Jane's stern "tomorrow for lunch" accompanying it.

Isabelle and Yola made use of being the slightly ignored middle children and appropriated the carrot and celery bowl and were almost successful at eating the whole thing by themselves.

Evelynosaur had struck again, this time stealing her mother's piece of chicken and running around the table, waving it over her head and growling.

Jimmy quietly devoured more carrot, yellow beans and chicken than ever, or so Mary claimed, so William immediately extended an invitation for her to come over any time she wished, as apparently the local air made her normally rather picky kid hungry enough to eat a horse. Or at least a huge portion of roasted chicken.

Rose and Mina were obviously plotting something, but she had no energy left to try to work it out. She was pretty sure that if one of them tried doing something stupid, the other would have stopped her.

She rubbed her temple and sighed.

"Mina, when you three are done loading the dishwasher, come upstairs, you have to get at least one attempt today."

"You can use my room, if you need the piano" Georgiana pointed out quickly. "I'll put the leftovers in the boxes."

"Actually, Mary, if Jimmy reacts so well to the foodstuffs, why don't you take a box or two? You'll have tomorrow's lunch and dinner done then, and hey, if he likes it, I'd make use of it."

"If it's just air and exercise..." Mary shrugged. "But I will definitely take a few boxes, if only to check if the effect is permanent."

 

#

 

Mina's voice was still bearing obvious signs of strain, even though the mucus was gone and she wasn't coughing anymore at every movement.

"Are you _sure_ you want to do this?"

By now, Elizabeth was quite sure it was a mistake, but one she would allow Mina to make, if she wished so. It wasn't as if that was going to be a full concert with everyone singing for a full hour. One attempt. If it went fine, then they'd be happy to have done it. If it went poorly, well, the explanation was right there.

"I can't just... give up like this! I mean, Mom, really. If I just say "sorry, not singing", I'll always be that girl who was afraid to sing in front of her new school!"

_Ah._

"OK. I absolutely see it. But please, try not to overdo, kitten. For the next week..."

"No shouting, no chatting too much, no drinking soda, no eating spicy food and no running outside."

"Pretty much, I suppose. If you want to stand a chance, you'll need all the advantages you can get. Now, I bought some more of these Icelandic moss things - I know it sounds gross, but they help. And drink a lot. I'd say eight glasses of water is a minimum. You have to actively remember about it, because when you're focused on other things, you will forget to drink."

Mina's phone chose that moment to produce a happy chirp and Elizabeth saw what exactly "focusing on other things" looked like.

"Go on, check it" she said with a smile. "I and then get back downstairs, they will be leaving soon, so you'd better spend some time with your cousins, too."

"Mhm" Mina was holding the phone with such a silly expression that Elizabeth had to suppress a giggle. "Give me a minute. I'll be..." she tapped the screen and blushed, just a little bit.

"Mina?"

"It's just..." she shrugged a bit. "Teddy. Being Teddy, apparently."

_Not that I have a lot of experience with being a fourteen year old in love for the first time..._

"As long as he doesn't text anything you feel uncomfortable with, I'm OK. But if he..."

"Mom!" Mina sounded exasperated. "He just..." she bit her lip and chewed on it roughly. "I mean, he..." she finally scrolled a bit on the screen and turned the phone to show it to Elizabeth.

 

_From: Teddy_

_I'm done with training for today._

_Barely standing up, but I just_

_had to text you._

_See you at school tomorrow._

_Lunch together in cafeteria?_

_It will make Monday more_

_bearable..._

 

"I suppose this is quite acceptable" she returned the phone to Mina. "Also, I have to commend his usage of proper full sentences, even in a text message. Many would have saved themselves half of that typing."

Mina smiled and - maybe, just a little bit - preened?

"He's like this" she said finally. "A bit, well, _formal_. I mean, not everyone at the school always says 'sir' to the headmaster and so on. And he kind of, you know, stands at attention, he's always so... so upright. I mean, guys slouch and hunch over when they are tall, but Teddy doesn't. Even when he's, like, leaning on something, or sitting down, he looks like he's standing at attention."

"So? This is what would attract you? A boy with a bit of ingrained discipline?"

Mina squirmed a bit.

"Maaaybe?" she said finally. "It's not just _that_. I mean, Teddy..." she leaned to Elizabeth's ear. "He's _cute_. Just don't tell him I said that."

She managed to stop the little smile that threatened to break out on her face as she looked at her younger daughter.

"Don't worry. I promise, I won't tell on you."

Another chirp.

"Ah..."

"Yes, yes. Check it. I'm leaving you to it. Expect you downstairs in five."

 

####

 

Their family had left. Little cousins had managed not to damage too much (except for Johnny) and Jackie turned out to be a good roommate for these two nights. Still, the silence was kind of a relief.

Mina had pulled out a silly game that was just right for their level of wakefulness - building colourful rainbow snakes - and they covered the carpet in the library with cards spread between them. Aunt Georgiana had excused herself, pointing to her phone, and disappeared into her room. Dad was sitting on the couch, glasses on and a book ready and Mom was... fluttering. Just a bit. It seemed as if she couldn't find a place for herself.

Mina pulled another card and groaned, trying to fit it somewhere.

"These cards are just _mean_ " she complained quietly.

"Nah, it's just my beginner's luck. Here, see. I've finished this snake."

"Like I said, mean."

 

####

 

He looked down at his daughters, quietly bickering over the card game and being so comfortable in each other's presence. As he glanced up, at Elizabeth, who was just running her fingers across the spines of some books in German, he felt a slight disquiet. She was tense, again. Despite everything, she was unable to relax. And now she had that look that he knew meant some vague discomfort that she was experiencing.

He stood up, walked around the girls' game and joined her at the bookcase.

"Liz?" he asked, standing next to her. "Come, lie down, hmmm?

"I..." she looked a bit ragged, as if she just couldn't stop herself.

He caught the hand closer to him and brought it up to his lips.

"The sofa, Lizzy. This piece of furniture, over there. You, down on it."

That made her laugh, and that, in turn, made her relax, just a bit. She turned into his embrace and willingly let herself be led to the seat. He put a small pillow on his lap and pulled Elizabeth down to lie with her head on said pillow. He started running his fingers through the cloud of her hair, massaging her scalp and neck until he heard her breath come in a more even fashion.

"Two weeks" he whispered, looking down at her relaxed face. "Two weeks and suddenly, you're here."

Her lips were slightly parted and there was nothing he wanted more than to delve into it and make sure that she actually _was_ there.

"Sometimes I'm afraid to close my eyes" he said instead. "I worry that if I do, you'd be gone when I open it. I check my phone constantly to make sure that the texts I remember reading are still there. When I get home, I first check where you all are..."

"Will..." she whispered, kissing the palm of his hand. "I _am_ here."

"I know" he traced the bow of her upper lip with his thumb, drawing a soft gasp from her. "But sometimes, just sometimes, the primitive part of my brain is so, so afraid..."

She hummed, turning and twisting in such a way that she was half-lying on him and half-hugging him.

"Is this better?" she asked, her breath warming up the spot on his chest where she was leaning, heavy and warm.

"Definitely" he pulled her up, distributing her weight a bit better. "But you know what would really help to alleviate absolutely _any_ of these fears?"

"Hmm?" she murmured sleepily.

"If I could wake up every day just like this" he whispered. "If I can wake up and have the absolute physical proof that you _are_ here... Like in the last two days..."

"Ah, so..." she squirmed a bit, but never looked up at him. "But does this mean that I'm not allowed to get out of the bed before the lord and the master of the manor decides it's the time to wake up?"

He brought her face up and teased her lips with just a bare touch of his.

"And why would you be leaving the bed, Lizzy?"

"Well..." she licked her lips with just a hint of a grin. "Maybe someone would be needing me?"

"Why would someone be needing you more than I?" he felt just a tiny bit of growl entering his voice, but Elizabeth smiled a bit wider.

"There may be at some point some problem that will require my direct intervention" she suggested.

"I don't think there is anything or anyone in that house who would require you to vacate your bed at such a barbaric..." he paused, looking down at her. _Ah._ "Do you want..." he swallowed.

"I suppose so" her lips were trembling in suppressed mirth.

"But..."

"Not _now_. Just... we could consider..." she shrugged, losing her certainty suddenly. "Or not, if you don't want any... I though you might, but I suppose..."

"No, no, Lizzy, no. It's not about that, it's just..."

They went suddenly stone-still, as the door of the library closed behind their daughters with a soft "click".

"Uh" he managed to utter.

"How loud were we?" she hid her face in his shirt with a moan.

"Loud enough" he sighed. "We'll have to talk to them about this."

"But maybe first with each other?"

He looked at her, slowly peeling herself off of him, biting her lip.

"Elizabeth..."

"No, I mean, if you don't want any more, I'm fine with that. I just... Thought that maybe in a year, or two, you know. When we feel more stable, when the house is finished..."

"Yes."

"W-what?"

"Yes, Elizabeth, I want to have more children with you. However many you wish to have. And this time we'll make it all work better. There will be no getting out of bed for you, mind you."

She frowned, which looked adorable on her sleepy face.

"If there is a problem requiring your direct intervention, the problem will be brought to you, not the other way round. Also, no bloody nurseries" he shivered. "Even though we won't have stone floors in the new house, I vote for disposing of that specific custom. I was an idiot to propose it then and I won't compound my failings by continue to hold to the idea."

"Good" she closed her eyes and seemed to be falling asleep just then and there, her body a pliant weight in his lap and in his arms.

"Liz..." he prodded her carefully. "Let's go upstairs? The bed is much more comfortable..."

"Just... hold me like this, for a moment."

He felt his heart melt at the soft plea.

"Of course. As long as you wish."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments?
> 
> Oohs and aahs?
> 
> Too many silly details? Not enough silly details?
> 
> Little Bingleys still adorable? :)
> 
> What about Rose playing the Helpful Older Sister?


	19. Cause home is where you are - p2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Whole week, up to the singing contest.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally!
> 
> I've been tweaking this for so long I can only hope I didn't leave any loose unfinished sentences in it or made it lose sense.
> 
> (if you find any, please comment, I'll fix them ASAP)

With the girls safely in class - Elizabeth watched them for a moment as they joined their homeroom group - they walked towards the headmaster's office, hands tightly clasped together and steps aligned. Just as they were about to knock on the door, someone cleared his throat behind them.  
"William Darcy?" a tall, rather thin man asked, stepping towards him. "Percy Strickland, Teddy's father."  
"I remember, we've met at the auction for the daycare last year" William shook the man's hand briefly.  
"This is my wife, Irene" the woman smiled at them, shrugging helplessly, as she was digging for something in her purse.  
"And this is Elizabeth, my fiancee" she heard that little hitch in Will's voice when he put his arm around her shoulders.  
"Ah, all of you, here. Thank you for being so prompt. Come in, come in."  
Even parents fell in line when the headmaster used his special voice, so in next to no time they were all seated in his office, tea was being poured and a file of documents was placed on the table in front of Mr Farlane.  
"Please allow me to start with my deepest assurances that such behaviour as displayed by James Davison is  _not_  what we ever plan to tolerate at this school. It is deeply disturbing that the boy had changed that much, just over the course of the summer months."  
"What  _exactly_  had happened?" Mr Strickland frowned and put away his cup. "Teddy was rather... tight-lipped about the whole affair. The very fact that he got a detention was a surprise for us and the way he explained it made absolutely no sense."  
Elizabeth flinched.  
"Ah" the headmaster nodded at her. "I suppose the girls were more forthcoming?"  
William shrugged, but Elizabeth nodded.  
"They told me in the car that very day, actually."  
"Wait a moment, Darcy.  _Girls_? I thought you have... Ah, your daughter would be..." Mr Strickland glanced at Elizabeth.  
"No, darling" his wife patted his hand. "They have twins. Teddy told me as much. James was somehow less then accepting, I suppose?"  
Elizabeth snorted.  
"You may call it that. On Tuesday, when we brought them both for the first time to school, some received a bit of a shock. Most reacted with simple surprise, but there was some negativity..."  
In bits and pieces, both Elizabeth and the headmaster providing details they knew, the Stricklands were told the story - from the general facts about Mina and Rose switching places, through the rather shocking Tuesday and culminating on the event-rich Thursday.  
"I knew it was impossible" Teddy's mother sighed when they explained the events of the girls' first day at school. "Teddy would have never hit everyone!"  
"Yes, well" Elizabeth cleared her throat. "That was our younger daughter, I'm afraid."  
"But why wouldn't she speak up? It is not fair for Teddy to..." the woman cringed. "I'm sorry, but Teddy's school record..."  
"From what Rose told us, Mina was most displeased with Teddy" William provided. "He didn't give her a chance to confess."  
"But..." the woman was searching for something, ending up with flat "but why?"  
The headmaster coughed, covering a smile with his large fist and Elizabeth looked at him with narrowed eyes.  
"Teddy said that Mina had already one punishment on her file this year, and that Davison's parents would be pushing for a suspension" she explained, probably not very helpfully.  
"That would have been quite possible, unfortunately" Mr Farlane explained. "James' parents are... Intense."  
"What did they have to say about their son's behaviour?" Elizabeth leaned forward.  
"I've spoken with them, and although Mrs Davison seems dismissive of the problem in its entirety - she doesn't even acknowledge her son's behaviour as having occurred - Mr Davison admitted that the vacation in US they took must have affected their son in a way. Unfortunately it is also what the man himself seems to celebrate. Power play of the hunt and so on. He was sitting right here, extolling the way a boy can become man in an unspoiled country like the US. It was rather scary to listen a grown, serious man talk of such brutal pastimes in a romanticised way like that. You know, in those days spirits were brave, the stakes were high, men were real men, women were real women..." he shrugged.  
"...And small furry creatures from Alpha Centauri were real small furry creatures from Alpha Centauri" Elizabeth smirked at his appreciative smile and confused stares of the other three.  
"Very well, Miss Bennet! You get a gold star!"  
"I'd rather exchange it for an explanation of how do we make sure that boy doesn't approach our children anymore. I don't want Mina to feel threatened at this school, too. She has had enough of that in London."  
"Absolutely! James had been suspended for a week - both bullying and the Thursday offence were enough for that. He will be moved to the other homeroom group in his year in order to separate him from Teddy and he will be under constant monitoring."  
"I still can't believe a fifteen-year-old could behave in such a way!" Irene Strickland shook her head. "But what happened on Thursday, exactly? Teddy made it sound like James made an even worse idiot of himself than before..."  
"He found it  _unnatural_  that our daughters were born on different days and started criticising me for being an incompetent mother. I think 'useless' was what Rose finally let slip when she got angry. Then Teddy showed up and and the situation got complicated. He told the Davison boy to stop it, and the captain her threatened him with removing him from the team" Elizabeth could tell that Teddy's parents hadn't heard  _that_  part from their son. "Then he started posturing some more, including fantasising about the way things could be, like on that vacation he took with his father, shooting animals and being the man who saves his family 'when the time comes'. Rose thought he was pretty crazy."  
"And that is when I arrived, alerted by the rugby coach, and heard the end of it. And yes, unfortunately, the way James put it, it sounded a bit unbalanced. I talked to all of them, I had Mina and Rose describe the situation and then I separated Davison from them. He actually tried to claim he never said these things that he actually did - and that in front of multiple witnesses  _and_  me - which made me call his parents. Their reaction, as I said, was... underwhelming."  
"Very well then. If the boy is going to be moved to other classes, I think we can accept this. But what about Teddy's detention? It's still, well..."  
"The first ever detention he had, I know. We'll mark it in the record as assigned by a mistake. That doesn't apply to Mina's punishment, mind you" he looked at William over his glasses. "It has been corrected to apply to her and not Rose now."  
"Well, it was a different case" Elizabeth sighed. "And it's definitely  _not_  her first one."  
Mrs Strickland frowned.  
"Teddy never told me your daughter has problems with... school discipline. I'm not sure..."  
"In a way, that first case was much easier than the current problem" Mr Farlane spoke over her, seemingly ignoring her little protest. "And Ray's parents were much more empathetic to the reason why he had been punched. In a way, they seemed horrified of his behaviour."  
"Ah... Ray's?" Mr Strickland looked at them uncertainly.  
"Wait, wait..." his wife raised a hand. "Mina is the girl who punched the bully who was stealing money from the smaller kids? The one Theresa had been raving about?"  
  
#  
  
The story had been told again, and retold, making Teddy's parents look first much more confused and then, thankfully, much less.  
"This is rather... exotic" Mrs Strickland shook her head. "But I finally understand why Teddy had been in such a strange mood for the last week. Twins. Well."  
"Now, not that I'm kicking all of you out, but I will be needing my office for other things. I hope I will see you all on Saturday then. And, in case Davison approaches any of your kids - including Theresa - make sure they know they should notify me immediately. He had been given a specific order to stay away from them."  
William sighed, standing up.  
"I hope he stays away, for the peace of mind of my daughters. On the other hand, if he approaches them, maybe this time Rose will have a chance to punch him, to make it equal."  
"William!"  
  
####  
  
The week before competition went so quickly they could barely understand where the days had gone.  
Practice.  
Teddy.  
Horses.  
Stable chores.  
Homework.  
Tests.  
Mom and Dad.  
Some more tests.  
Physical tests.  
Teddy.  
Paperwork.  
Discussions about the house.  
Teddy.  
Miss Yang and aunt Georgiana.  
Picking the bathroom decoration.  
Picking the downstairs decoration.  
Picking the kitchen design.  
And, on Wednesday, the crowning moment of the week, the visit of Sergeant Hanners.  
  
#  
  
There were many questions being asked, of varying levels of importance.  
"Is this a cough, Mina?"  
"So, this no-talking thing, are we keeping it up?"  
"Have you cleaned the saddle properly?"  
"Is there some more hay?"  
"Have you finished these Maths problems?"  
"Rose, where are my trainers?"  
"Are they kissing again? In the schoolyard? Are they even supposed to do this, at their age? Grownups are disgusting."  
"Do you have enough pencils?"  
"Can you run another lap?"  
"Do you want me to help you with that?"  
"So, are you sure about that surname?"  
"Maybe we'd want to have a little workout room?"  
"How are you feeling about Saturday?"  
"Are they... wow, and your parents are cool with it?"  
"Teal or navy blue?"  
"How big should the fireplace be?"  
"Do we want a waffle iron?"  
"How long has your cousin been smoking pot, do you have any idea?"  
  
####  
  
William choked on his tea as the sergeant posed that question in a very matter-of-fact manner and smiled at him.  
"I... no idea, really. That bag we found - the cleaning crew found - was the first indication we've had..."  
"I understand. However, there are certain signs you might have noticed but not connected it to the weed smoking" she flipped the notepad open. "I'm going to ask you now a few questions and you don't have to answer - or rather, you don't have to provide definite answers, but please think about them. Please note that I'm not asking about your own experience. Some people use, for example at the uni, but..."  
"No, just..." he stood up. "I never tried. The way overindulgence in alcohol affects my control was a nasty enough surprise for me. Even though there had been people in my classes who dabbled and even dealt, I never felt the temptation. The idea of surrendering my brain to the random vagaries of unknown substances was ever abhorrent to me."  
"Very well. Do you know any of the common symptoms of a person who uses then?"  
He turned to her again.  
"Never had felt the need to learn. Please, let's go through the list and we'll see what I can confirm."  
They sat down, looking at each other searchingly.  
"Very well. Have you noticed her ever smelling something slightly like tomatoes, or burnt tea?"  
"Not that I’d ever consider trying to voluntarily  _smell_  her..."  
"Quite right. Did she smoke cigarettes?"  
"I think she might have, outside of the house. I did smell her once or twice stinking of  _that_ , so I suppose she smoked in her car."  
"Have you ever seen her roll one herself?"  
"No, I can't say I did.”  
"Have you ever seen her with rolling paper? Like for handmade cigarettes?"  
He considered it.  
"I have to honestly admit I was actively avoiding contact with her, if it was possible. Her, and her mother, living with us was more of a family obligation than anything more cordial."  
"Ah. Very well. But you  _did_  have some contact?"  
"Some, yes. Not enough to confirm anything related to her daily habits, outside of meals”  
"Very well. So, next points. Have you or others observed her having episodes of paranoia?"  
"From what my daughter said, I'd say yes."  
"Sudden sharpness of mind, jumping to conclusions?"  
"Not really."  
"Giggling at things that weren't funny?"  
"No. Not sure she knew how to giggle."  
_And even if she did, I'd probably put it in the “cackle” category._  
"Long rambling stories making no sense?"  
"Rants, yes. Sudden remarks out of the blue, too. Stories, no."  
"Hand tremors? Eyelid tremors?"  
"No. Maybe... I think I saw her hands shake, a bit, maybe."  
"Dry mouth? Complaining about that is a common thing."  
He cast about for a moment.  
"No, not that I've heard her do that. But she was always drinking something."  
"Displaying cravings for sweets that went outside of standard for a person her age and size?"  
He snorted.  
"Mostly. And discussing it with her mother every day at breakfast. I thought it was just classical case of her discussing a new diet until  _we_  were sick of it, and then overeating anyway. She's been like this ever since I remember. She always seemed to behave as if calories eaten away from the table somehow didn't count."  
"Well, that is one of the common symptoms - albeit shared with multiple eating disorders. OK, so that is done. Now, the timeline. Our laboratory has estimated the bag of leaves to contain matter at last three years old. Is there anything around that date or earlier that would be in some way meaningful, different...?"  
He thought for a moment.  
"Three years ago... Anne had some kind of meetup with her high school year. Anniversary of one kind or another. Fifteen years, I suppose."  
The police officer frowned, looking at her notes.  
"By my count she should be hitting twenty-year mark this year..."  
"Anne was sick a lot as a kid, she got held back two years."  
She made a small note in the pad.  
"I'd wager - but this is between you and me, Mr Darcy - this is when she started using. Someone from her old school would have been dealing, and she got hooked during the reunion. We've seen it happen, unfortunately. Could I speak to Rose while I'm here? I'd need, if it was possible, a specific description of what happened that afternoon."  
"Rose...?" he blinked. "Ah. Well."  
"She  _is_  better now, isn't she? Was it more than a cold?"  
He bit his lip.  
"She is, definitely. Just..." he paused for a beat. "Yeah, we'll have to get this over with at some point."  
"Mr Darcy...?"  
"Give me a second. I'll fetch them."  
Fortunately girls were home - Mina looking slightly absent and Rose already changed into her stable outfit - so he asked them in.  
"Now, sergeant. This is Rose" he pointed out his older daughter "but  _this_  is the girl you've helped."  
"Oh, Sergeant Hanners!" Mina looked as if she woke up suddenly. "I thought about going to the station, but there were so many things happening!"  
The police officer smiled wryly.  
"OK. That is unexpected. Now, you" she pointed to Mina. "Explain."  
  
####  
  
Sergeant Hanners was listening attentively as Mina retold her the history of the Friday afternoon barely three weeks previous. She asked pertinent questions, followed up on slight inconsistencies, went back to check the timeline of events and nodded, appreciating Mina's attention to detail as she recounted the discussion she had with aunt Anne.  
"I must admit, the whole order of events was rather... inopportune" she said, shaking her head. "But why didn't you go shopping directly after school then? You'd have been done before the rain and never got sick."  
Mina blushed hotly.  
"I..." she looked down at her feet. "I wanted to avoid a boy from school. He lives in Lambton, so when I got on the bus, he had no reason to join me, but if he noticed me going to the mall..." she shrugged.  
"You never told me it was  _his_  fault!" Rose spluttered indignantly.  
"Well, it's not like he  _made_  me go home or ask for aunt Georgiana to take me shopping. And he didn't break her car."  
"But, if not for Teddy..."  
"I wouldn't have been sick and Mom would have never stayed for so long."  
They felt Dad's hands on their shoulders.  
"I think I'd rather not consider this option too carefully" he said, his voice somehow thick. "Now, go, homework to be done."  
  
#  
  
"Sooo..." Rose flopped to her stomach on her bed, watching her sister avoid her gaze. "It was all because of Teddy?"  
Mina shrugged.  
"In a way, I suppose. I wanted to avoid him after school, and  _that_  happened."  
"But don't you see? If it wasn't for you getting sick, we'd still be stuck with all the old crap!"  
Mina nodded slowly.  
"I suppose so" she sighed. "Anne would have never annoyed Dad that much, aunt Catherine wouldn't have spilt the beans about stealing the letters, Mom would have left right after switching us back..."  
"And all of that because you were being a good sister" Rose pointed out.  
"Wh-what?"  
"If you just ignored what you promised me and talked with Teddy more..."  
"Rose! I wouldn't... never! I mean...!"  
"Yes, I know what you mean. And you didn't. And I love you for this, you know?" Rose drew closer to Mina's bed and propped her elbows on the bedspread. "I know I've given you grief about Strickland, but..." she found herself fascinated in the pattern of stars and planets. "I... I'm sorry."  
She looked up at the touch and saw her sister carding her fingers through her hair.  
"I liked him back then" Mina sighed. "I... He was nice and funny - he does have a sense of humour, don't make a face like this, Rose Darcy, or a cold wind will come and it will get stuck like this forever - and I remember thinking that, darn, even if I can't really, like, you know, take him up on this, at least he'll make this competition somewhat interesting..."  
"Well, it's much better now, isn't it?" Rose smiled and patted her sister's shoulder. "Not that I get why you're so into him, but hey, it's your choice, little sister. If you're fine spending your time with a bloke that's like a modern-day knight - or squire, I suppose - I can only promise you I'll make his life hell if he hurts you."  
"Thanks, Rose. That's... touching."  
"Don't mention it. I'm just being a good sister."  
  
####  
  
The practice sessions with Miss Yang invariably ended with Mina and Teddy finding themselves on a bench by the side of the school, watching the dusk slowly creeping over the town and the lights coming on in stages.  
"I once thought there is some central controlling board and some guy sitting there, flipping the switches that made the street lights turn on. I even thought it must be a terribly boring job - sitting every evening in some stupid office, never seeing the actual sunset."  
"It's a good thing these are automatic then. It's saving some poor sod from going crazy from lack of sun."  
He snorted and nodded, smiling at her.  
"Teddy, I..." she bit her lip. "I hope you do well on Saturday."  
"Oh, I definitely will" he breathed. "I hope you will, too. I wouldn't want to... You've worked so hard on this."  
She shrugged.  
"I'm still not as good as I could be. Not as good as I was before I got sick, actually."  
"But you sound fine" he frowned. "You will be OK for the the contest. You have to be."  
She rose a bit and pressed a kiss on his smooth cheek.  
"Thank you, Teddy" she sighed. "I have to provide you some proper competition, don't I? The others are... welll..."  
"In need of a few more singing lessons" he suggested lightly. "Not everyone has a live-in voice coach, like you."  
"And what about you?" she asked, sitting down. "Who makes Theodore Strickland sing?"  
She caught him looking at her with the strangest expression.  
"My grandma was a child choir director when she was younger, so once it turned out that I had rather good sense of rhythm and a good ear and actually was willing to have lessons with her, she dived right in. She died when I was ten, but by then she gave me, I suppose, reasonably good basis. My parents aren't... Well, I didn't have time for structured lessons like that anymore, so I basically just sing, trying to do it as correctly as possible. When Miss Yang tells me what I should correct, I remember grandma saying similar things. It's just that since my voice broke it was kind of hard to re-learn how to use it."  
"That is... wow" Mina smiled widely. "I mean, wow. You're really good, you know?"  
"Nah" he shrugged. "Just plodding."  
"Teddy, I..."  
"Mina!"  
" _Blast my sister_ " she mumbled, picking up her backpack. "See you tomorrow then?"  
"Tomorrow" he sighed.  
  
####  
  
"How was the practice today?"  
Mina shrugged.  
"It's... not very good. I mean, I can sing. Not like I forgot  _how_. Just my voice, it isn't behaving like I need it to."  
Rose shook her head.  
"Have you considered, you know, withdrawing from this thing? You've been sick, so it's not like you'd be giving up because you're afraid of honest competition. You've already heard the others sing, right? Is there anyone there who could, and I mean, be honest here, be a proper challenge for you?"  
Mina nodded, stretching on her side to face her sister.  
"And who at my poor old school is good enough to make you think you'd actually lose to them?"  
Her younger sister winced.  
And blushed.  
Rose waited for a heartbeat more and then understood.  
"I thought you said he would have made it  _interesting_ , but I thought, well, not in  _that_  sense. Is that why Miss Yang put the two of you in the same practice session? So that each of you could hear their strongest competition and, what, that would make you train more or harder?"  
Mina shrugged, hiding her face in the duvet.  
"And he's really that good?"  
Mina made a small affirmative sound.  
"Hey..." Rose poked her delicately in her shoulder. "Don't worry. Mom knows what she's doing, and if she tells you..."  
"Mom said I should consider withdrawing, too" Mina mumbled.  
"But... I thought she always, like, encouraged you to do stuff!"  
"She does, normally. She just..." Mina shrugged. "She says I've been sick too recently. If I had a week more - even better, if the competition was the weekend after Halloween - I'd have enough time, but like this... I  _know_  she is right. Two years ago I got sick in December and then I tried to sing carols and everything came out  _squeaky_  and my throat hurt... But I  _have_  to do this."  
"Because if you don't, then what?"  
Mina grimaced.  
"From now on, I will be the Darcy twin who got scared of a contest. People  _always_  remember the stupidest things. It doesn't have to be logical. Believe me."  
"So you'd rather go, sing and fail than..."  
"Than not try at all. Exactly."  
  
####  
  
Elizabeth was sitting by the window, clutching a cold tea mug and watching the darkness outside.  
Her usual - because she would have never called it  _normal_  - circadian rhythm had been affected (read: shot to hell) ever since she had arrived and by now, after three weeks, she felt so off-kilter that nothing worked correctly anymore. She made an attempt at putting herself back on the right track by filling her every waking hour with activity. She was at her keyboard whenever she could focus, assisted Georgiana with preparing the house for the winter, had lessons with Mina and helped Rose with her Physics presentation.  
It should have been fine. It should have been a full enough day to make her feel secure, stable and organised.  
Yet, she couldn't sleep. And no sleep meant no creative work getting done. She had spent the Friday afternoon staring at her screen fruitlessly for hours, trying to put together the database query that would yield the fastest outcome. She couldn't even focus enough to do  _that_.  
"Liz?" his voice was thick with sleep and somehow uncertain.  
She wanted to answer him, but she couldn't find the words to explain what was wrong. She stayed silent, hunched over her mug of cold tea which was, by then, undrinkably bitter and useless.  
She was unbalanced, disoriented and, for some annoying reason, suddenly missing her London flat. It wasn't as if she wanted to go back  _there_  or to be parted from William and Rose again. But there was something about it, something seductive in the thought of being independent again, with nobody to tell her she was supposed to sleep or work at defined hours.   
Giving voice to that longing would have hurt William. It would have been unfair to him, after all he went through and the way he accommodated her and Mina and...  
_What do you really want, Lizzy? You hated that life..._  
"Come to bed, Elizabeth. It's... half past two?" he frowned and rubbed his face with both hands. "Are you okay?"  
"I'm fine" she sighed. "Just..."  
"No, you're not" he was suddenly right beside her, plucking the mug from her unresisting fingers and putting it away on the small table. "I saw you trying to work earlier, but it didn't look like it was going very well. Are you worried about this? Is this some new thing, or an old customer coming back?"  
She shook, just a bit.  
"Old customer, wants new database. They sent in the data as they keep it in Excel, which is always messy, but I'm working on cleaning it up and making sense of it..." she rubbed her eyes, then her temples. "Just... just going slower than I predicted. Not sure I can do it, what with Mina's singing and..."  
"Shh" he gathered her closer. "Come here, you're chilled. Mina will be fine, and the contest is tomorrow. She will go, sing and ace it, or fail, but it will be done" he nosed her hair away from her shoulder and pressed his mouth into the thin cotton of her t-shirt. "Come to bed and let me hold you. Even if you don't fall asleep properly, at least maybe your brain will shut down for a moment. A little nap, hmm?"  
She sighed and leaned into him.  
"I'm worried about her - about both of them, in fact, but right now, it is a bit more about Mina. She's not yet well enough to really sing properly, but she's so invested in this, I can't really order her to withdraw. And I'm worried what will happen when she fails."  
"If she fails" he corrected her gently.  
"Will... I know my stuff. Her vocal cords are not yet clear enough. If everything goes perfectly she  _may_  have a chance at singing this well, but..." she heaved a sigh. "I'm afraid what it will do to her self-esteem."  
"We'll just have to make sure she knows we know it's not a usual situation and that we know she would have done better if she hadn't been sick."  
She nodded slowly.  
"We could give her something to sing during the wedding...?" she suggested softly. "It's not the same as asserting your place in the school pecking order by properly winning a contest in front of her  _de facto_  new schoolmates, but it will serve as a reminder that  _we_  think she is good."  
"We have to think about a role for Rose, too" he tugged her a bit closer. "But first, sleep. A nap for you, miss Bennet."  
"Maybe I should make myself a hot water bottle..." she yawned.  
"You wound me" he gasped in mock-pain. "How could you try to replace me with... with something artificial!?"  
"William...?"  
"I thought you would remember that I am much better than any stupid hot water bottle."  
"Well..."  
  
#  
  
Yes, he was.  
Hot water bottles don't cuddle.  
  
#  
  
She woke up after her "nap" of six hours, feeling slightly better. Somehow her brain was much quieter and calmer. She took her time - there was absolutely no hurry, the contest was in the afternoon - so by the time she was actually considering sitting up, William bustled through with a tray of tea and toast.  
"Uh" she made an eloquent sound. "Mh?"  
Her brain was still catching up to the vision of her fiance serving her what was, essentially, breakfast in bed.  
"Sit up, move closer to the headboard and make yourself comfortable" he ordered her as he placed the tray on the table. "The girls are taken care of - Georgiana made them scrambled eggs and a heap of grilled cheese sandwiches."  
"Ah" she was still not up to proper words.  
"Now, milady, this is your breakfast" he moved something from behind the back of the bed and unfolded a set of legs for the tray over her own legs. "Eat, drink and then you can try to get some more sleep, if you feel inclined to. I've spoken to Rose and Mina and I suppose we'll be reorganising our common day plan in order for you to get adequate amounts of sleep and the right circumstances to actually do your job. Girls say you usually work during the night, which is of course not very conductive to the 'adequate amounts of sleep' part, but I think we can work around it... What is the usual time when it's the easiest for you to code?"  
She sighed and took a sip of the perfectly made hot cocoa, which helped her brain to activate the 'forming sentences' functionality.  
"Unfortunately it's mostly dependent on others. With Mina it was defined as 'Anytime from an hour to two after she falls asleep, and then straight on 'til morning, or beyond'. Now, though..."  
He slid under the duvet on the other side of the bed and shifted closer to her.  
"Sooo... You need everyone else either to be asleep, or away?"  
She sighed, picking at the piece of toast.  
"I hope it isn't really necessary" she said finally. "But it might. I have no idea. I hadn't had a chance to experiment on this. When I lived with Jane, she was mostly away or asleep, so it's not comparable. And I really want to spend time with you all... I'll need to apply some more discipline to how I approach work, I'm afraid."  
He nodded and reached across her, picking a piece of toast and the butter knife.  
"Well" he started covering the slice in an even layer of butter. "Now we could think of making sure you have all the quiet and peace in your room. But before this happens, you need to find a stable daily routine. You've been overdoing it, Lizzy, and I know it, so this weekend we'll use the time to replan and reset. None of us is going to be doing any work, except for some light cooking and checking if the girls managed to do their homework. And now" he added a layer of creamy cheese over this "eat."  
"But, Will..."  
"Sh" he put a finger of his free hand on her lips. "You take care of everything, of all of us, you worry about the girls and I know you are being the best older sister possible for Georgiana. And you worry about me when I overdo it. So, now, let  _me_  take care of  _you_ , OK?"  
She nodded slowly and pursed her lips a bit, kissing the forbidding finger lightly.  
"Good. Eat. A nap. I will make sure the girls are too busy to get into mischief and yes, I will make sure Mina doesn't shout. We'll be in the library, if you want to find us later."  
  
####  
  
They were sitting on their respective beds, Mina wrapped in the quilt made by Mom and Rose in the afghan.  
It had been very easy, actually, to divide the things.  
The rugs were now perfectly in the middle of the distance between their beds, two pairs of slippers on the smaller one and the larger one conveniently placed just under the window, where the main room carpet ended and naked stone floor was waiting for unsuspecting toes, to paralyse them with cold.  
Everything Mina had one of went onto the empty top shelf of the bookcase. The plate, the photo frames and the lampshade - they had no lamp it would fit on anymore - made for a quirky decoration up there. The pillow was on the windowsill, the clothes stored in the "common" part of the wardrobe and each bed was made with one of the "big pieces" on top. Rose, when Mina gave her the choice, picked the afghan immediately. It was something Mom had been  _holding_  herself. Every little inch of the yarn had gone through  _Mom's_  fingers. Rose had to admit she might have become a bit obsessed with that fact.  
Now, sitting with their legs crossed, they wrapped in their respective covers even tighter and smiled at each other.  
"Are you sure you want to wear your Anna dress?"  
Mina nodded, glancing towards the wardrobe where the gown was already hanging, freshly cleaned and pressed under aunt Georgiana's supervision.  
"I mean..." Rose bit her lip. "Well, not everyone is, like, a  _fan_  of Disney."  
"I'm not a fan of  _Disney_. As in, Silly Symphonies are for babies" Mina corrected her. "I really like the feature films. And I really like that dress. I mean, it's the best thing I have right now! I will just have to put some pretty thick tights on under it, because the auditorium is drafty."  
"The fact that you're going to look like a proper princess isn't to be sneered on, either" Rose pointed out with a small smirk. "Just make sure Teddy doesn't get too overwhelmed by the way you look, or he may have problems with singing... On the other hand, you could use it as a weapon, you know. He will be so focused on you he will forget the lyrics, or something."  
"Rose! That would be making use of an unfair advantage! Also, Teddy is much too reasonable to lose his focus like that!"  
Rose rubbed her slightly chilly nose with her sleeve.  
"Unless he does it on purpose" she said finally, straightening. "Oh. Oh, I just had the worst idea  _ever_  and I think..."  
Her sister was sitting higher now.  
"What...?"  
"I'm just saying - just, you know, being me - but, if you were out of the competition, would you say Teddy would win?"  
Mina nodded, hesitantly.  
"Well, I hadn't heard any of the others, they are scheduled for different hours, but during that first meeting in September they were... less than challenging?"  
"And Teddy was?"  
"Yeah, I thought he could be a real competition even then."  
"So if you were out, he would win?"  
"If the jury has ears, yes."  
"And if you, for example, managed to fumble your song for some reason, I don't know, not beginning on time, or whatever?"  
"If I did something really obvious, like sing flat or forgot my lines or messed up the rhythm, then they'd be absolutely justified in giving him the first place."  
Rose chewed her lip.  
"And if you sang before you were totally recovered and something went wrong..."  
Mina sighed heavily.  
"Yeah, the same. If I mess it up, Teddy wins, hands down."  
Rose nodded slowly.  
"And you're singing first?"  
"Second..."  
"I mean, you are before him?"  
"Yes. Alphabetical order."  
"So Teddy will hear you singing before it's his turn, right?"  
"Well, 'Strickland' is at the end of the list, definitely. I think there is just one kid after him."  
Rose started picking a thread in the afghan, not looking up at her sister.  
"Rose."  
Rose licked her lips and finally faced Mina.  
"And what would happen if you just made a minor mistake and Teddy, for example, completely failed with his song?"  
Mina frowned.  
"I suppose I'd have a good shot at winning, unless Vincent improved significantly since September. Rose, what the hell are you talking about? Why would Teddy fail? He's had a week more of practice than I had and he's really, really good. He knows the text, he knows when to start..."  
Rose rubbed her nose again.  
"Because he  _is_  a bloody knight on a white horse and he would be failing to let you win?"  
"Wh... no... no way, no!"  
"Chivalry and all that rot. He knows you deserve that first prize so he will make sure you get it."  
Mina drew a huge breath and held it in, trying to calm herself.  
Yes, it did seem like something Teddy could do.  
It definitely sounded like something she'd be rather angry about.  
"But... I can't just tell him  _not_  to do it, because that would seem like I'm assuming he  _would_. Like I'm actually expecting he would do it, even as I'm telling him not to!"  
Rose sniffed.  
"Sit with him and pay attention. If he even... I mean, tell him something like 'wish you luck' or stuff. Like telling him you  _want_  him to win. I have no idea! I've never had a guy follow me around like that!"  
Mina groaned and leaned forward.  
"Now I have to think about a way to deal with this. Give me five minutes."  
"At least it will be five minutes when you're not stressing out about the contest itself, right?"  
Mina just slowly slumped to the side.  
"Yeah" she sighed. "Let me think."  
  
####  
  
When they arrived, the school auditorium wasn't exactly full, but William had to put in a bit of an effort to get both Elizabeth and Rose places close enough to them to see the scene comfortably. The contestants had been directed backstage, so they had parted with Mina rather early on, and Georgiana was assisting Miss Yang with preparations, so she had been at the school since early morning, setting up Elizabeth's piano and checking the sound systems, thus allowing the teacher to focus on the students.  
Friends and families of the participants milled around, trying to find the optimal places. Rose pointed out their classmates to Elizabeth, adding small remarks about each.  
"Marika. We were in preschool together. She is still miffed Mina managed to fool her."  
"Ivar. Sits behind Mina in Biology and seems a bit annoyed with Teddy for existing, actually."  
"Sebastien. We have French and Maths together. Seems a bit absent most of the time."  
"Tatiana, same homeroom and everything. She's still suspicious of us two."  
"And Richard, who is handsome and tall and hadn't seen you in  _ages_ , girl!"  
"Uncle Rick!" the calm, quiet and composed kid  _catapulted_  herself from her seat in order to hug the man who had just sneaked up to them. "When did you come? I didn't know you'd be here! Mina doesn't know...! And Mom, Mom, did you know..."  
Elizabeth looked up just in time to see Richard's eyes narrow just a bit as he set Rose down on the floor.  
"Lizbeth."  
"Rick."  
"Still pretty."  
"Still an idiot."  
"I was talking about myself."  
"Well, so was I, as a matter of fact."  
Rose made a small, choking sound.  
"Oh, come here, you dreadful little woman" he reached out to her and she found herself engulfed in the roughness of his woollen coat and the scent of leather, lanolin and a small but present suggestion of gunpowder. "Oh, it's good to see you, Liz. So good to see you. All in the proper order, finally. You, him, the kids... Anything else I should know?"  
She shrugged, just a little bit.  
"Ah. Do you need me to scare him a bit? I have my service weapon on me, you know."  
"No, I need you to take time off on the eleventh and come, nicely dressed, to the Lambton register office. Plus one encouraged."  
"Whenever have you seen me  _less_  than nicely dressed? And I assure you, my plus one will be there and will be just  _stunning_."  
She laughed weakly and hugged him closer.  
"Just be there. I'll text you the exact time."  
"If you don't, we will just show up there at the opening time and wait for you, scaring the employees."  
"Now, if you have finished flirting with my fiancee, maybe you could let her sit down and watch the performance, hm?"  
William was the next to be enthusiastically hugged and Richard wasn't really putting any effort into controlling his volume as he congratulated him on stopping being an idiot.  
"Shut up, Rick, or I'll ask Charles to be my only witness and make you the flower boy."  
"Fate worse than death. I'd rather share the burden of supporting you with him. Oh, I think it's starting."  
Lucy Yang walked up to the middle of the stage and tapped the microphone a few times to test it.  
"Hello" she said. "If everyone could please sit down, we'll be starting in five minutes. I will ask everyone to turn off their mobiles and whatever else they carry that could make any noise. Please make sure you don't interrupt our participants in any way."  
A murmur of phones being pulled out and disabled went through the audience and everyone started getting themselves seated. Meanwhile, the contestants filed in from the side door and were seated at the back of the stage.  
Richard leaned on the wall next to William, cutting a dashing figure in his crisp dark grey waistcoat and trousers, blue shirt and huge military-style coat. The way he moved, even when supposedly relaxed and casual, still screamed 'military' and she didn't doubt for a moment that that he was, in fact, carrying.  
There were quite a few stumbles as various ladies noticed first William (looking quite impressive in his 'country gentleman' getup of olive green waistcoat, light checkered shirt and wine-red tie, which all together emphasised his wide shoulders much better than any full suit) and then Richard (who smiled at everyone without discrimination to gender or age, making unsuspecting females go weak in the knees). She exchanged a glance with Rose and they both stifled a giggle when a group of last year students almost crashed into each other as they passed by.  
  
#  
  
She already knew that Lucy Yang was a good pianist, and a teacher quite well suited to the task of dinning some musical knowledge into thick skulls of teens more interested in romance and sports than in delicate pursuits of cultural development. The fact that she had managed to collect twenty contestants from the mainly sport-oriented community of that particular school, and half of them boys, was a further testament to her persuasive abilities.  
As the rules of the competition were explained and the jury introduced, Elizabeth allowed her attention to wander and she finally focused on the contestants. Mina and Teddy were sitting right in the middle of the scene, setting the divide between the girls' and the boys' sides and she smiled as she noticed the boy's subtle propensity towards looming protectively.  
Mina was doing breathing exercises and playing - maybe a bit nervously? - with the lace on her dress. Teddy was straightening the cuffs of his shirt, then his collar, his bow tie... and then he looked down and laid his hand, palm up, in the space between them.  
_Huh._  
The alphabet wasn't exactly the fairest way of ordering the singers, but they didn't manage to come up with anything better after one of the fathers protested after they had already drawn the lots (she still wasn't sure why exactly, but the fact that his kid had drawn the "13" might have been the reason). That order made Mina the second, and Teddy the second to last. Statistically that placing meant Mina's chances for a good outcome were much lower than if she had been in the middle of the set.  
She sighed and immediately felt William's hand on her shoulder.  
"She'll do  _fine_ " he said with much more conviction than she could feel.  
Miss Yang invited the last stragglers to sit or find standing places by the walls and the lights were lowered, putting the children on the stage in the centre of attention.  
"The first person to sing will be Vincent Crady, and he will be performing 'Amazing Grace'."  
The boy was acceptable, even better than that. Slight pronunciation issues, ones a good voice coach could help him with, but he had very good sense of rhythm and a very nice, bright tenor. Half a year of individual training and he could safely become a choir soloist.  
A moderate amount of applause had him bowing and quickly moving back to his chair.  
"Now, the next person is Wilhelmina Darcy, and the song is 'Loch Lomond'."  
Mina stood up and sighed, relaxing her shoulders with practice. She walked out to the small "x" on the stage where all singers were supposed to stop in order to let the limelight operator's work easier. Blinking in the harsh light, she smiled, curtsied (her new dress looking appropriately dignified) and nodded to Miss Yang. The piano gave her the first few notes and she began, voice high and clear.  
At first, everything sounded fine - every note was hit with precision and Mina seemed to relax slowly.  
Until the first chorus.  
They should have known better, but Mina had been so adamant, and Elizabeth didn't want to  _force_  her to withdraw.  
Unfortunately...  
The moment Mina's voice wobbled slightly at "afore ye", she had the confirmation.  
Definitely, two weeks were not enough for a throat to recover properly.  
She saw Mina's slightly pouty lower lip as she prepared for the second half as Miss Yang played the few bars between the verses.  
"'Twas there that we parted" was a perfect octave lower than the beginning of the song and so went the rest of it, in a range much less impressive than what Mina had been training to use, but at the same time much safer for her and less straining for her vocal cords.  
"Ouch" was the only thing Elizabeth managed to say when she saw her younger daughter's thinly pressed lips and restrained unhappiness as Mina curtsied again with a brave (but fake) smile and turned back to her seat. It was a nice, proper performance and Mina had correctly dealt with the problem of her still-recovering voice, but the correction was drastic enough for a truly competent jury to notice and take it into account. Audience seemed quite happy with her, however.  
It wasn't much of a consolation that the next few children, despite being good for their age, were much less proficient than Mina. She could see the self-disappointment in Mina's face and knew that due to the stage lights there was no chance to signal their support. They'd have to wait until the end - probably even after the results were announced.  
_Oh._  
Teddy was holding her hand.  
_Good._  
Finally, after almost all the children had tortured their chosen songs to one degree or another, there were only three persons left. A girl, then Teddy and another boy, something Wilkinson. And Teddy was...  
...being severely frowned upon by Mina, which actually seemed to make an impression on him, despite their height difference.  
Rose groaned.  
"What?" Elizabeth hissed.  
"I told her in the morning to pay attention to Strickland, because he would be trying to be all noble and let her win, somehow. And I'm guessing he had just said something that made her suspicious, so she told him off."  
"How do you know this?"  
"That he was planning something like that? I know him a bit, and he is that kind of silly. That she had told him off? Look at her face. She had just ordered him to 'stop being stupid'. And now he doesn't know if he should do as he thinks would be noble and self-sacrificing or to do as she told him to."  
"If he tries to fail on purpose, Mina will never forgive him."  
"If Mina doesn't win, she will be crushed."  
"Better crushed in honest fight than winning because someone had  _let_  you."  
"It's not an honest fight, she was sick."  
"Still, she decided she wants to do this, and she knew perfectly well her throat wouldn't be up to the task yet. I told her."  
Rose humpfed.  
"Sh, Teddy's turn."  
Teddy patted Mina's hand and stepped forward to the microphone, squinting his eyes at the glare.  
He was looking rather dapper in a charcoal shirt and slim grey waistcoat which, combined with dark grey trousers, underlined his sportsman's built. He pulled the microphone a little higher and smiled and the unseen audience.  
"Theodore Strickland, and he is singing 'Star of the County Down'."  
A short intro by Lucy Yang and the boy was singing.  
**And boy, was he singing.**  
She sat up, watching him stand in that perfect relaxed-and-straight way, she counted the rhythm and listened to all the little ways in which someone with good basic training and a lot of talent can deal with technical imperfections.  
Rose cringed at the end of second verse.  
He skipped the third verse. It was fine, the song still made sense without it.  
"...when I dress in me Sunday clothes" he stood a bit straighter at that, putting his thumb in his waistcoat pocket "...with me shoes shine bright and me hat cocked right and a smile for me nut brown Rose..." Rose cringed again.  
_Poor kitten. Both of them._  
_Or rather, all three!_  
"...a smiling bride by me own fireside sits the Star of the County Down!"  
_I wonder if he would be interested in taking more lessons... But Mina will kill me if I offer to tutor him._  
He stepped slightly to the side, picking the microphone out of the stand and sang the last chorus, in a relaxed pose, with his side to the audience, and holding his hand just slightly out to Mina. Who was steadfastly looking at her hands, gathered in her lap.  
"No maid I've seen like the brown colleen...! That I met in the County Down!"  
At the ovation, Mina finally looked up. Then she promptly blushed all red and looked down again.  
_They are just too cute. I really hope that boy really_ **is** _as nice as he seems to be._  
Teddy sat finally, all flushed, and let Adrian Wilkinson sing some insipid lullaby, more suited to preschool competition than a teenage one.  
As far as she could see from around Adrian (and there was a lot of poor Adrian to look around), Mina's hand again found its way into Teddy's.  
The jury (consisting of the music teachers from other schools in the area, the choir master from the Catholic church and the one from the Anglican church, the local newspaper cultural columnist and the local radio station editor) didn't have much to discuss. In ten minutes, the verdict was written down and shared with Miss Yang, who read it from her place by the piano.  
"The third place, Vincent Crady. Come here, Vincent, congratulations" she was handing him a small diploma and the boy was bowing, red and flustered. "The second place, Wilhelmina Darcy--" a small storm of clapping arose from where kids from Mina's and Rose's class were sitting by the opposite wall and Mina was raising, her head high and eyes slightly reddened, to receive her diploma and stand by Vincent next to the piano. "The first place" Miss Yang held the pause for a moment, but there was no doubt in anyone's mind and when "Theodore Strickland" was called out, half of the audience went crazy.  
Elizabeth sighed. Finally. It was done, it was time to take the whole set - and her piano! - home, at last.  
The classmates of the winners, the families of other participants - some tearing up at the unfairness of that all and some completely fine about the outcome - the other teachers, all made for a rather sizable crowd around the microphone and the piano. She stretched and caught William's eye, nodding towards the front.  
"Let's wait until the worst crush is gone" he suggested. "Mina can guard your piano for a minute or two more."  
"Mom" Rose patted her arm and pointed to the side aisle, where Teddy, piloted by Mina, was carrying the bag with the piano and the folded stand, making their way through the throngs of people.  
"Afternoon, Ma'am" he nodded and placed the piano safely on the chairs in front of them. "I thought it would be better to take it off the stage before someone ran into it."  
"Thank you, Teddy" she shook his hand. "Congratulations! That was... very good."  
"Ah" he cringed a bit. "Mina should have won..."  
Mina sniffled, just a bit.  
"Not true" she said, her voice slightly wobbly. "Teddy was better."  
The boy fiddled with his bow tie.  
"I..." he shrugged. "I wanted to win, but not because my best rival was disabled due to illness."  
"I will make sure  _not_  to get sick next year" Mina answered haughtily, but still with a bit of regret showing in her tone. "I will show you proper  _rivalry_  then.  _Theodore_."  
"Oh, I think there will be an occasion sooner than that,  _Wilhelmina_. Christmas fair always has a carol singing competition. You game?"  
Lizzy watched with wonder as Mina's pouty, disappointed expression changed into one of a challenge.  
"You bet!" she stared up at him with narrowed eyes.  
William coughed, pulling them out of the heated, if silent, exchange.  
Teddy almost jumped up.  
"I'm sorry, sir. Theodore Strickland, I... well..."  
"William Darcy. Nice to meet you again, Teddy. I think the last time was... the school sledge ride, five years ago?"  
Teddy blushed.  
"I'm afraid it might have been, yes."  
"Ahm. Cadet Strickland?"  
Teddy's spine became suddenly much, much straighter, and his face much, much paler.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let me know what you think :)
> 
> Bad news: Next chapters will take a while to post, as their completion status is "25%" and that's only if I'm very lenient. And I'm finalising TWO other stories at the same time (yeah, sabotaging myself...) and starting on my original novel (as if I had too much free time)
> 
> "A while" means something like mid-month, no earlier, unless I get struck with a sudden attack of inspiration.
> 
> Oh, and what Richard is wearing is just what Captain Jack is dressed in for this pic: https://voiceoftv.com/img/posts/58c54c024ed41.png  
> And William is wearing this: https://www.planetclaire.tv/quotes/sherlock/mycroft-holmes/series-three/ (but no, don't try to put Gatiss as visual for William, please ;)) 


	20. Cause home is where you are - p3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After the singing competition, an evening.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi ;) I'm actually alive. Just back from a very nice SF/F convention (where I attended several fascinating sessions, including one about writing psychologically probable characters and others about fanfiction as a phenomenon), spent a week at the countryside and now I'm... off sick ;P So I have a week of enforced rest in front of me. Guess what I'll be doing...  
> But in order to give you all, my dears, something, here's the next bit.  
> Meanwhile, I'll be writing Sunday-Friday (including gossiping, snogging in some silly place, comfort food, older sibling being a pain in the ass and someone mentioning "feminine wiles").

"Colonel Fitzwilliam, sir."

"At ease, Cadet" Richard bit the corner of his mouth as Teddy, still military-stiff, performed a perfect change of position.

"Sir."

"I think we can dispose of the formality for this afternoon, Teddy. Still, now that I see you, have you given your consideration to completing the needed activities for the Duke of Edinburgh's Award this year?"

"Yes, sir. I've registered for the Silver award after the camp. I am starting now on the detailed plan and want to take up volunteering no later than in November."

"Very well. If you need any help, something specific you need to do, contacts to organise something or just a written confirmation you're a Cadet, you know where to find me. And congratulations on the competition. Very well done."

"Thank you, sir, but it should have been..." he looked around, at loss for words.

Mina was watching the exchange from where Elizabeth had pulled her into a hug.

"Mom?"

"Yes, kitten?"

"Who is Colonel Fitzwilliam?"

Richard's eyes turned towards them and he directed his most charming smile straight at frowning Mina.

"Hi," he said a bit breathlessly. "I'm your uncle Richard, kiddo. Also, your godfather."

Mina scrunched up her nose.

"I always thought uncle Charles was my godfather" she glanced at William with a frown and he sighed.

"Charles is Rose's godfather, ducky."

Mina sniffed, just a bit, and extended a cautious hand towards the bemused soldier.

"Oh, really? A handshake. A cold welcome, indeed!" Richard rolled his eyes theatrically. "My own dear goddaughter doesn't want to hug an old man?"

"I don't really know you, but I've been taught not to hug just anyone" Mina pursed her lips.

_Uh oh._

Richard glanced at Elizabeth, a raised brow asking for an explanation.

"Mina had, in fact, been taught she doesn't need to hug anyone she doesn't wish to hug, Richard. Kitten, Richard is your Dad's cousin - your grandma was his father's sister. You don't have to _hug_ him, but please do consider him a part of the family."

Mina still looked unmoved and only nodded stiffly.

_What the hell...? She's fourteen, she shouldn't be behaving like a six-year-old... Ah, I see._

Indeed, Elizabeth did see. The little, short glance that Mina sent Teddy's way.

_Options. Either she is worried because Richard was Teddy's commander or whatever it is during the camp or she is worried about Teddy being busy or..._

She bit her lip.

_Could our family stop being complicated?_

"Richard, do you have some more time today? Mrs Reynolds takes weekends off, visiting her sister, so we have to survive on our own meagre cooking... Ouch! Elizabeth!"

 

#

 

Richard laughed like a loon, witnessing the exchange, but once he could catch his breath, he assured them that he had whole afternoon and evening free, just for them, and invited them all for something sweet. Seeing Teddy, still standing in discomfort next to them, awkwardly pulling his jacket on and trying to say a private goodbye to Mina (interrupted by no less than three people) he quickly asked the boy to accompany them.

"It would be inexcusable to just let you just walk home, alone like this - what with you being the winner and all. I think a round of hot chocolate and tea would be just the thing for everyone, and our young singers have certainly earned themselves a piece of that fabulous pistachio cheesecake offered by the cafe down the street from the school. Come on, Teddy. Call your parents and tell them you've been press-ganged into joining us for the evening."

An evening with Richard always promised to be fascinating.

 

#

 

Richard had fulfilled every expectation, being expressive, talkative and _fabulous_. Just as she remembered him.

Rose obviously loved him, hanging onto his every word and laughing at even the most terrible jokes. Still, not everyone at the table was as focused on him as Rose (who barely noticed that Elizabeth had ordered for her, which in case of Mina usually triggered a huff of 'Mom, I'm not a baby!'). Specifically, Teddy and Mina were progressively more and more focused on each other, despite everyone around the table watching _them_.

"You want something with a proper explosion? Well, we have _a few_ of these every year, but we had an interesting one last summer, just as we've been hosting a team of Army Cadets for some slightly advanced training. Young Theodore here had already heard - or, rather, witnessed part of - that one," Richard winked at Teddy, who looked up in alarm from where he had been watching Mina playing with her pendant. "It is, well, despite the language used, a teaching experience, I may say, for both the old and the young. You see, there was this tobacco factory they were emptying, trying to remake it into a shopping mall, or maybe a residential building, I never paid attention. The point was, they couldn't just raze the whole thing to the ground, because it was a registered historical structure, supposedly built by some very well known architect. So they had people cleaning out the storage rooms, taking out _tons_ of papers, leftover plant matter - that would be unprocessed tobacco - and various other things that had been left there to rot when the production was shut down. Now, does any of you know, what is needed to produce cigarettes, apart from the tobacco and the paper?"

Mina shrugged and Rose followed.

Richard smiled at Elizabeth, inviting her to take a guess.

"These little sponges, for filters?" she provided. "I think that this is what they are in the newer cigarettes? My father used to smoke when we were little, but Kitty's asthma put an end to that. I still remember playing these old, old filters that were just a long roll of tissue."

"That, too. But there is something, more of a class than a specific thing... Actually, it's used in most industries."

"Chemicals" William leaned closer to her, gathering her to him. "As with every production, there must be a bunch of acids, salts and whatever else you use to process the leaves, and paper..." he waved. "Probably the whole periodic table and some interesting combinations, too."

"A cookie for the gentleman in the corner" Richard handed one to William with a wink. "They had, of course, a huge, huge chemical lab. For production, for testing, for research. And when they moved the production away, they never did anything to deal with that beautiful, corrosive collection. So the cleaning team arrived, they had a bunch of neutralising solutions and they started disposing of the stuff. Some of it was no more dangerous than a standard cleaning agent, so they went quickly through the whole lot. Read a label, dump it down the drain--" he grimaced "-- read the label, treat it with whatever neutralises it, dump it down the drain... Read the label, dump down the drain but **no sooner than twenty minutes after the last one**. You know. Dirty, but well, they hadn't been really paid to do it very properly. They were smart enough to do it safely, however, so when in one of the cupboards they had unearthed a huge glass jar labelled "Picric acid" they _didn't_ shake it to see what's inside. They were rather lucky because, in the time when the factory stood empty, the water had evaporated."

Elizabeth inhaled with a hiss, but the girls simply frowned.

"Theodore?" Richard made a welcoming gesture.

"Ah" Teddy found his voice. "Picric acid is very, very explosive. Unstable. If it's allowed to dry, it crystallises and then... kaboom. It reacts with metals, too, and the products of that also explode, quite happily."

"Very good! Good to know we've taught you something useful. Just in case you have to, remember to pick a remote place..." Richard ducked under the rolled-up newspaper William had swatted him with. "Well, back to the story - they checked the jar - and it was a huge thing, five litres - and saw that the contents were crystallised, just like Theodore said because it was allowed to dry. They cautiously moved out of the room and placed a call to the appropriate institution" he bowed slightly "and a qualified team arrived to take the jar away in one of our fabulous armed vehicles. It was transported to our base and there we've performed a controlled explosion. We've allowed the locally stationed cadets to witness it - in order for it to be an appropriate teaching event, showing them the potential of even such a seemingly innocuous amount of matter. It had been a rather impressive outcome, hadn't it?"

Teddy nodded eagerly and Elizabeth felt William sigh soundlessly.

"Well, the moral to the story is not only the one that we've presented to the witnessing cadets - that even a trace amount of something may carry a punch - or that dangerous things come in small packages. Unfortunately, it also teaches us that, as superiors of young people, we must always and under all circumstances watch our language. Because unfortunately one of the officers present on the range had..." Richard paused and grimaced "...made less than cautious remark in the presence of some very young and impressionable persons. Then one of these persons was dispatched to inform the team from the factory that the jar had been disposed of, which they did eagerly. Unfortunately the previous three weeks spent in constant contact with the military personnel had overcome the young man's good upbringing and reduced his sensitivity to the type of language acceptable to general masses, so when the commanding officer of the exercise walked by the room where the call was being performed, he heard - to his deepest chagrin - the young man making a very excited summary of the day's events, culminated with, pardon my French 'And the colonel said the explosion was fucking glorious!'"

Teddy's ears looked as if they were on fire.

 

####

 

Mina didn't know exactly what to make of uncle Richard.

Dad's cousin, fine.

Mom obviously liked him, so he fell into the same category as aunt Georgiana - Dad's family who liked Mom.

Rose was looking at him in fascination.

Teddy had snapped to attention the moment he had appeared.

Now almost everyone was laughing at the story, but Mina was only watching Teddy blushing more and more.

_Oh. Poor Teddy._

Dad coughed.

"Richard," he said weakly.

Uncle Richard sipped his tea and smiled at Teddy.

"Don't worry, Theodore, girls do like a man in uniform and they ignore many of his shortcomings. As long as you keep the vocabulary under control, I will consider allowing you to date my goddaughter..."

It was Mina's turn to blush hotly, so she almost missed his next words.

"...once she turns eighteen, of course."

Mom frowned at that, but she didn't even manage to say anything as uncle Richard was already leaning threateningly towards Teddy.

"You see, young man, I will make sure your every weekend at the base is full of very, very exhausting tasks, so for the whole week afterwards you will be so tired you will barely have the energy to study. So if you have any plans towards my sweet little niece..."

Mina definitively wasn't feeling as delighted with uncle Richard as others seemed to be. Godfather or no, he had no right to... to say things like that. About her _or_ Teddy.

No right at all.

He knew her for what, half an hour?

She didn't even allow _Rose_ to make too much fun of herself and Teddy, and uncle Richard, Dad's cousin or no, had much less right to say _anything_ than her twin sister.

And he was saying something _again_ and Mina, quite frankly, didn't want to hear any more from him. Not at all, thank you.

"...with such an age difference, you two..."

_OK, that's it._

"Really!" she stood up, lips pressed tightly in a line. She blinked away the tears that threatened to fall. "I... You..." she suddenly found herself at a loss for words, but seeing everyone around watching her in surprise she took a slightly shuddering breath, shrugged on her cardigan, turned on her heel and strode outside, leaving the ones at the table staring in a stunned silence as she wrapped the scarf around her neck. It made her exit certainly less dramatic, but she _did_ have enough sense left to make sure she wouldn't be getting too chilled that evening. She heard several people standing up, so she sped up, finally walking into a bench-lined park alley and collapsing bonelessly on the first free bench.

She was _tired_ and annoyed. The day sucked. The competition went all wrong. She was fine with Teddy winning, but in an honest, fair fight and not when her voice simply decided to _give up_ in the middle of the song! And then someone had the temerity to claim she her done it on purpose, to _let_ him win. And then it turned out that she was the only one in the family who didn't know Richard - including Teddy! Who had apparently signed up for some _more_ training or who knows what and she just couldn't process that at all. And then the teasing and her eyes hurt and her nose was full and she was so heartily _fed up_ with all of them!

Someone sat next to her on the bench, but she didn't raise her head. If they wanted something, they should start.

"When I saw you the last time, you were wearing a blue onesie, a white hat and mismatched socks. And you threw up on me. Beetroots. Do you have _any idea_ how hard it is to get rid of a beetroot stain? I had to dye that shirt brown. The ugliest shade I've ever seen. Still not sure why Elizabeth was feeding you beetroots. Why couldn't it have been carrots, or peas, or anything else that at least doesn't leave stains that can be seen from twenty paces."

She sniffed, not dignifying his presence with a reaction.

"I actually _am_ your godfather," he said finally. "And I'm sorry for... I understand... Bah. No, really, I'm sorry. I'm used to teasing Rose on any topic I can find. She's usually happy to fight back, but I might have forgotten you two aren't _exactly_ the same. I... I overdid, right?"

"A _bit_ " she hissed.

"I thought so. Because if I overdid this a lot, you'd have hit me, I suppose. That's something Rose doesn't do so it would be a kind of novelty."

She groaned.

"Which one told you about _this_?"

"Your father. He was inordinately proud of you, I'm afraid."

"Yeah, because it's so fab to have a daughter that hits other students and can't even sing a stupid song properly."

"Well, I have a goddaughter like this, and she seems perfectly fine. Nice girl, a bit quick to beat a man up. Have you seen her somewhere around?"

"Richard" Dad's voice sounded a bit scolding.

"William. I'm just talking to my goddaughter."

"You were making her more miserable, more like. Kitten, come back inside. You need to eat something. If you are anything like your mother, I'm betting you didn't manage to eat a lot for breakfast, then you were mostly stressing at lunch and are more then ready to murder much more than just a pastry. We have to work out which restaurant seems good to everyone."

She didn't feel like eating. She felt like going home, falling on her face on the bed and having a good cry.

Her stomach grumbled rebelliously.

"Well then, is there anything specific you'd like to eat?"

She sighed and raked through her hair a bit.

"I... No idea. Let Rose choose. She knows what I like and she knows what can be found around here, I suppose. I don't care, really."

"Mina..." Dad's hand felt warm on her shoulder. "I understand it's hard..."

"No you don't" she bit out. "Nobody... Why... Ugh!"

There was a small crunch of the gravel in front of her and she felt both uncle Richard and Dad straighten. And then they stood up and, after a small exchange she couldn't really hear, they left.

"Hey."

She sniffed.

"Hey," she said softly.

Teddy's jacket felt nice around her shoulders.

"You're going to be cold," she said after a moment of silence.

"Then let's go back to the cafe" he suggested.

She didn't want to. She didn't want to go out to eat, or to see more people, or...

Teddy's arm around her felt nice, too.

"I'm fairly sure your uncle was joking" he ventured.

"I'm fairly sure my Dad has some ideas that will sound similar" she leaned closer to him. "Probably waiting until I'm sixteen or... or something."

He hugged her a bit tighter.

"I'd be OK with that," he said haltingly. "Well, not OK-OK, because it would be two years, but, if you thought... I mean, if you wanted to..."

She nodded.

"How is it with other people?" she sighed finally. "How do they make their families behave when they start... stuff?"

"No idea" he straightened a bit. "I mean, I've never..."

"Like, completely never?"

"Nuh-uh. There were some girls last year that... But, I mean, never fancied anyone enough to even consider..." he shrugged. "And then, you, and Theresa was talking about you for the whole day, and the whole _weekend_. That girl that had punched Ray so hard he cried. I didn't even _know_ he was picking on the littles! And I call myself an older brother! And I wanted to talk to you on Monday, but then I saw you've signed up for the competition, so I did, too. I was kind of counting on having some chance to talk to you, but then on the practice, it was a crowd, and I had to wait until Thursday, and..."

"You really remember it day by day," she said suddenly. "Like, truly, day by day."

"Yeah" he rubbed her arm through the thick canvas of his jacket. "I mean, it was a pretty important week in my life."

She nodded slightly and scooted even closer.

"I suppose we should get up soon, or now _you_ will be sick" she whispered.

"I don't want to," he said and sighed. "But I suppose we should, yes."

"Mhm," she nestled a bit deeper into the folds of his jacket.

"Could I...? I mean, not if you don't want to, but, you know, if they say we can't, I..."

She looked up at him, frowning.

"What?"

"Kiss you?"

"Oh," she blinked. "I... Well, you..."

"Not if you don't want to!" he said very quickly. "It's fine, I just..."

"No, it's not that. It's just... I've neve... I mean, the..."

"So, you never...?"

She sat up straighter and looked at him.

"Listen to me, Teddy Strickland. The guys at my old school were _dicks_. They were barely human beings from my point of view. There was nobody who could even count as a _potential_..."  
"Ah," he said, still probably not seeing her point. "So, you mean, you never..."

"I never even considered any of them as _anything_. Yuck."

"So..." he bit his lip "you wanna, I mean, give it a try?"

She nodded slightly.

"OK, so, how do we... ah."

They had at least one hand - hers - between them that they had trouble rearranging, so he resolved the problem by bringing it up and putting it on his shoulder.

And then his lips were just a bit chilled and they were both terribly unsure of what they were doing, trying for a better angle and something was always wrong, with their cold noses bumping into each other, or a short giggle threatening to escape her at the least appropriate moment.

And, with all the small laughs and unruly limbs, everything suddenly clicked into place and they held their breaths for just a few seconds before parting.

"Yeah," he said softly. "If they tell us to wait for two years, I think I can, now."

Mina's face felt overheated and she hid it in his shoulder, nodding mutely.

"But I really hope they won't. It would be..." he pursed his lips. "Long?"

She nodded, just a bit.

"But you will be busy anyway" she pointed out bravely. "I mean, that... award? That uncle Richard was talking about? This is going to take a lot of time, isn't it?"

"I suppose so" he sighed. "It seemed like a good idea. It was... After the camp, a lot of others were discussing it, and it sounded interesting. Not like it doesn't sound interesting anymore, but, well. At the time, I didn't predict I'd..."

"You'd spend a month preparing for a competition you weren't even considering to enter at the time?"

"Well, that too. Or that I would spend a week worrying about _a girl_! And then two weeks trying to understand what the blazes had happened...!"

She pressed a kiss to his chilled cheek.

"Teddy," she said softly. "I really _like_ you. And if you can stand the fact that I come packaged with my twin sister and some pretty nutty family, I think I can tolerate you being very busy for most of the time."

"So..." he sniffed and nodded. "You mean, you want to, like..."

"Just don't say 'go steady' or something from an American romance."

"I meant, do you want this to be official? At school, and stuff?"

"I think after that performance of yours there is nobody at the school who doesn't think we're something. But probably half of the school isn't sure which one of us you really meant."

He groaned.

"I'm going to print myself a t-shirt saying 'my girlfriend is the one who hits' or something."

"Don't you dare, Teddy Strickland! It was just these two times, and I don't plan on making this my hobby!"

"You could join the boxing club" he suggested with a trace of laughter.

"Doesn't it mostly admit tall, well-built..."

"Yeah," he said quickly. "Maybe not the best idea."

"But you will be busy anyway" she mock-sighed. "What with the award, and your GCSE courses, and..."

"And you" he interjected. "OK?"

"As long as all the grownups in my life agree, I suppose" she sighed. "Because with you being a year older, they may..."

He cleared his throat, just a bit.

"Teddy?"

"This may be a good moment to tell you something," he said slowly. "I mean, it's not like it's a terrible secret, because your sister already knows it anyway, I suppose, so the moment she..."  
" _Theodore_."

"It's not like I'm a _year_ older. I'm just in _year_ ten, but I've only turned fourteen in June..."

She straightened, looking at him, frowning.

"You mean you're four months older than us?"

"Yes, milady."

"So, why are they behaving like that?"

"Because you're a girl and Dad and uncle Richard have no experience in _this_ part of bringing up a girl" Rose informed her calmly. "And you two are disgustingly sweet. Mom sent me out with your coat, because, as she said, 'Teddy must be getting a bit cold by now'. Put your jacket on, Strickland, you ninny."

Mina sent her sister a withering glance, but shed Teddy's heavy jacket, wrapped it over his shoulders and pulled her own puffy one on.

"So, you have like five minutes more before Dad and uncle Richard lose their... patience. Mom is keeping them at the table for now, but," she rolled her eyes expressively "they are both behaving as if you two had eloped to Scotland or something."

"Thanks, Rose" she mumbled. "We'll be back in a moment."

"Strickland, I like you, but..."

"Rose!"

"I was just going to say - hurt my little sister and they'll never find your body. I know places in the woods where nobody will think to search."

Mina groaned, hiding her face in her hands.

"Go away, Rose!"

"Four minutes," her twin said finally and marched away.

"Argh."

"I like her," he said with a small smirk. "Come on, not every bloke can say he had been threatened with bodily harm by a girl half his body weight. _And_ had to take it seriously."

"Yeah, she does come equipped with a horse, and they kick" Mina shook her head. "Come on, or they will send a rescue team for us."

They stood up and walked slowly up the gravelly alley towards the cafe.

"Mina?"

"Hm?"

"I really meant it. I mean, I can wait until whatever time they set. But I'd rather not. I like talking to you, and I'd rather have some more time with you than just on the lunch break."

"Me too" she smiled. "I will probably be spending a little less time with Miss Yang after classes now. So, well, depending on what you'd be doing..."

"We could go somewhere, sometimes?"

"Not a lot to do outside at this time of the year, I suppose?"

"Well, not now. It will be snowing, soon. That may be nice."

"I could" she swallowed. "I mean, come to a rugby game? Unless you'd rather I didn't?"

"Sure" he squeezed her hand. "That would be good. Of course, that's only if you want to watch a bunch of guys get really terribly dirty chasing a small ball. But from what I've heard, the new captain is a rather nice fellow, if a tad tall for his age..."

"How tall would that be?" she glanced up at him, guessing there was a joke in it somewhere, but unable to work out what it was supposed to be.

He put his hand at the top of his head.

"About yea high."

She gasped.

"Teddy…"

"Part of Davison's punishment - they suspended him and removed him from the team. And the coach said that since it's my "fault", I'll have to pick up the slack."

"But… Will you have time for it all?"

He shrugged and nodded towards the cafe.

"I suppose I could discuss this with the colonel… unless you'd rather I didn't?"

"My God, this is getting complicated!"

"Fine. Let's reduce the problems to the easiest questions then. Do you really want to see the next game?"

She snorted.

"Never wanted to, before. But I suppose it would be nice to see _you_."

He ducked his head, bringing their lips together again.

"Let's go in" she suggested finally. "Or..."

"Yeah. Better to show we're complying."

She found his hand and pulled him inside the cafe.

_Wow. Like, wow._

_Mina Darcy, did you just get yourself a boyfriend?_

_Yes, you did._

_And a cute one, too._

_My God, are you living in an American movie?_

_You're dating a school team captain._

_This is..._

Rose snorted when they stopped by the table, both a bit breathless.

"You two are _so obvious_ " she rolled her eyes. "Here, Mina" she handed her sister a short tube. "Lip balm."

Mina felt her cheeks reddening anew, but the short, strong squeeze of Teddy's fingers on hers made her look up at him and smile widely as she met his gaze.

_Yeah._

_It's going to be interesting._

 

####

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So. Yep, short. But I hope at least someone will laugh a bit.  
> Let me know what you think, yadda yadda, if you see an obvious error, TELL ME, of you see something not making sense, TELL ME.  
> I've recently found like 3 plot holes when I reviewed this from the beginning and fixed them retroactively ;P Wonder if anyone will notice ;>


	21. Cause home is where you are - p4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Richard gets Talked To, family spends some time together and Teddy brings some unexpected news.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's been over a month, I know.  
> This is just a tiny little bit, I know.  
> I'm so, so sorry.  
> Unfortunately drowning my laptop (and subsequently rescuing it) put me off writing for some time.

She leaned back and groaned.  
Mina was outside the cafe, saying 'goodbye' to Teddy for the last few minutes.  
Rose was in the toilet, or rather, most probably, stuck in a queue to the ladies' room.  
It was time to  _talk_  to Richard finally.  
As it seemed to be a pattern that day, someone beat her to the punch.  
"What exactly were you thinking, Rick?" William sounded weary. "I don't claim I'll ever understand a teenage girl fully, but even I know that making fun of someone's boyfriend is a surefire way to get them really pissed off. Seriously? Threatening  _Teddy_ , like that?  _I_  know it was a joke, but, Rick, kids at that age don't  _get_  sarcasm. They are deadly serious about things like that. Yes, both twins have a great sense of humour. They can tell terrible jokes with the best of them. They prank each other. They needle each other. But what you did? Not funny. At all."  
Richard squirmed.  
It was weird, watching him do that, but Elizabeth felt a bit vindictive after what he did to Mina - and how he cut  _her_  off when she wanted to interrupt him.  
"You may think you know her" she added when William fell silent. "But you really don't. The fact that she looks like Rose doesn't mean she  _is_  Rose. And even if they were much more similar than they are, it would still be a kid you have no claim on. A kid that has experiences you know nothing about, a kid brought up in a situation you know nothing about and a kid who had been  _bullied_  through most of her school life simply because of her being short. And what you did? You threatened a boy she likes. Like. A. Bully."  
"But, Liz..."  
"Like. A. Bully. Also, you interrupt me, Richard Fitzwilliam, and while fifteen years ago I might have been meek and quiet and allowed you to do it, I've been training myself out of these habits. So, do you understand what you did? You picked on my daughter. By the proxy of picking on the boy she likes, and you in an explicit way threatened  _them -_  whatever they are right now - no idea what this is called nowadays - you threatened that. You are bigger and have the authority of being Teddy's officer during the camp, so from Mina's point of view you are just a common schoolyard tormentor."  
"Elizabeth" William patted her shoulder. "I think he gets it."  
"Well" Rose sniffed derisively as she pulled out her chair. "I hope he does, or I will have to hit him. Nobody is authorised to make fun of Mina and Teddy, except for me. She is  _my_  sister. Not someone else's."  
Richard rolled his eyes heavenwards but Elizabeth saw a slow, unwilling acceptance creeping into his exp ****ression.  
"OK, I know, I know. I overdid. It's just... I wanted to..." he shook his head. "It seemed like a good idea at the time?"  
Elizabeth snorted.  
"You wanted to make an impression on Mina" she pointed out. "And you blew it. No more first impressions for you, Richard. It will be all hard work from now on."  
"Suddenly" he stabbed his piece of cheesecake "I wish the two of you weren't such modern, responsible and communicative parents."  
Elizabeth raised her eyebrows in a silent enquiry.  
"Traditional conservative parents would have spanked her seat and told her to obey her elders" he grumbled.  
"You can ask Dad how well the argument about 'elders' worked for the last person who tried to use it on me" Mina remarked sweetly, sliding into her sear and spearing a bit of apple pie with her fork.  
William coughed and sipped his coffee.  
"Will...?"  
"The last person to use these words in discussion with Mina..." her fiancé smirked and sipped some more coffee, obviously enjoying seeing his cousin's discomfort. "...was aunt Cathy. So, you can obviously try to go down that lane, but the company you are going to find yourself in is not one I'd personally think you would enjoy."  
Richard groaned and covered his face with his fork-free hand.  
"Yeah, sure, rub it in. Not only I can't make a proper connection with my only goddaughter, I'm utter crap when reading kids' reactions and I also voiced an opinion that puts me in one box with our dearest aunt."  
"Yep" Mina remarked nastily, sticking her tongue out at him.  
"Wilhelmina Darcy, stop this immediately" Elizabeth sighed. "I may not be the conservative disciplinarian, but a grounding with a significant amount of chores is still in my portfolio of available punishments if I decide you need to be reminded that things like rules of proper behaviour still exist."  
"Yeah, but they should apply to everyone" Mina mumbled, pushing a piece of her pastry around on her plate.  
"You are not going to let this just die by itself?" Richard asked morosely.  
She picked a bit of her pie and filled her mouth with it, shrugging.  
"If a kid said something like this" Rose remarked, stirring her tea "the headmaster or the parents would have interrogated them until they explained all the "why", "why not", "who", and "what exactly were you thinking", but there is no headmaster for the grownups, is there?"  
 _They are getting entirely too cheeky, both of them._  
She exchanged glances with William and they both fought smiles emerging on their faces.  
"Apparently nobody needs a bloody headmaster when a poor soldier has two sassy nieces to torture him. Also, your father  _did_  ask exactly that question" groaned Richard. "OK, OK. Yes. I messed up. I should not have said these things to Teddy, I should not have been threatening him and I'm  _sorry_  for making assumptions about Mina. I admit, I'm not as all-knowing as I try to pose as. Better now?"  
Rose scrunched her nose.  
"Well, Richard" she said, raising a finger and enunciating carefully, with something of an affection of an old-school governess "It only counts if you are actually  _sincere_  about it."  
William choked on the last of his coffee.  
Mina snorted, spitting some of her pie out.  
Elizabeth kept her dignity intact, simply because she had refrained from eating and drinking temporarily, and was very happy about it now.  
"God, Rose, now I have apple pie in my nose!"  
  
#  
  
Finally, Richard stopped playing the victim and apologised honestly (or at least as honestly as a very thoroughly henpecked forty-five-year-old male can). Mina gracefully accepted and promised to pass the update on to Teddy. Afterwards, they spent a nice, companionable evening together, eating a proper dinner at a restaurant and talking about the whole situation, starting from the camp (backtracking to Jane's manipulations, Richard expressed his admiration for her abilities), through the painful and confused September, Mina's illness, going back to school, Davison, Teddy (here Mina blushed and Richard whistled quietly in admiration) and ending with the last week of rehearsals and an explanation of Georgiana's absence.  
"She has a date" Elizabeth informed them all tersely. "And if anyone even tries to bother her about it, they will have to answer to  _me_."  
"Wow" Richard nodded slowly. "I never thought... I mean, well. She is over thirty now, and she had never dated since, like, high school. I just hope you guys know the bloke."  
Elizabeth waved it away. And waited for a beat, just enough for him to raise his cup of coffee to his lips.  
"Yep, we know her."  
The effect was indeed satisfactory, as Richard's eyes popped a bit, but he managed to swallow the coffee without any interesting accident.  
"Good for little Georgie" he said at last. "I seem to remember her with boys, though. Some crushes, some celebrity posters on the walls..."  
"Yes, well. It's Lucy now."  
"Hey" Richard smirked over his cup. "I'm the last man to be bothering someone about their choices. I just hope they are happy, that's the only important thing."  
Elizabeth considered that for a moment.  
"They seem to be. It's still early days, but they seem to be fine. And we all are very much not interfering. And don't you dare say anything to her, Richard. You are not showing particular sensitivity this week, you know."  
"You  _are_  going to dredge this up whenever you feel like it."  
"Absolutely."  
  
####  
  
Sunday promised to be relaxing. After all the preparation, the excitement of the competition and the slight disappointment and annoyance of the afternoon, it seemed that everyone was more than ready to kick back and stop stressing.  
Except for Elizabeth, who had taken a look at her mailbox and sequestered herself in the library, working like a woman possessed on her laptop until Rose barged in and reminded her it was time for dinner.  
As they sat quietly and shared a not-exactly-Sunday spaghetti and salad, with Georgiana sneaking glances at her phone and Mina looking into space with a slight smile which suggested that despite the fact that both girls had been dealing with homework for most of the day, she had managed to sneak a text here and there and whatever it was that she had with Teddy was going fine.  
"I got a new job" Elizabeth finally said between bites of salad.  
William poured them all some more water.  
"I wouldn't have guessed" he snorted. "Girls, did you notice anything that might have told you that your mother has something she needs to work on?"  
Mina made an innocent face.  
"Not really... Unless you count the fact that she didn't step outside the library since breakfast..."  
"...or the way she swore at her e-mail around ten in the morning..."  
"...or the way she kept smashing her keyboard ever since..."  
"...then no, nothing at all."  
She sighed, but couldn't control a smile.  
"Now, be nice, children. This one may be a big, continuous job that will keep me in good money until summer next year. The size of the project is astounding and it is almost perfectly suited to my skills. I just need to catch up with one technology I've never touched before and I'll be OK. And they want to pay proper money, not the 'little girl' rates."  
"As they should" William actually  _growled_. "This rubbish about paying different money depending on gender... I had some old sticks lecturing me about paying women assistants and secretaries too much, because they can never be as effective as a proper male employee. At least one of them was rather insistent on explaining on his own example that his secretary always tries to leave exactly at closing, because she has to pick up the kid from daycare."  
Rose smiled up at him.  
"I remember that one. Dad was sitting there and that old... human being was pontificating. And Dad just stopped him and said 'if you paid her more, she would have been able to afford more hours at daycare'. And the man just caught some air and went very, very quiet."  
"It was that or throwing some tea in his face" William hid his face behind his glass. "One of the old guard, you know. Calls his secretaries 'dearie' and 'doll'."  
"And they still work for him?"  
She looked up in time to see quite a boyish smile dancing on his lips.  
"Some of them work for me now" he said finally.  
  
#  
  
The girls were in their room - asleep or not, she was not going to check it. Their lunch boxes were ready in the pantry, to avoid any delays in the morning. Georgiana had absconded to her room after begging to be allowed the use of Lizzy's piano for the evening - she wanted to practice without disrupting anyone. Mrs Reynolds had returned from her visit with her sister and commiserated with Mina on her second place (and then made some tut-tutting sounds when Rose made a theatrical summary of Richard's behaviour).  
"That boy never knew when to keep his mouth shut" she sighed. "It always got him into the worst kind of trouble. Well, nevermind. You" she turned to Mina with a conspiratorial smile. "Tell me about that young man of yours. Every. Little. Detail."  
  
####  
  
"We may have a problem."  
Teddy sounded rather serious, so Mina decided to risk an additional minute or two in the corridor.  
"You mean, more than just the fact that people still seem to be confused which one of us you were planning to ask out and they think I might have stolen you from Rose?"  
He snorted.  
"Yeah, more than that. My aunt, Giselle."  
"Your aunt Giselle, what?"  
"My aunt Giselle, a member of the Historical Society of Lambton" he grimaced like someone who had just bit a lemon.  
"Argh. Dad said he was going to have a meeting with them. What did she say?"  
"Do you want a summary, or a full quote?"  
She leaned on the wall.  
"Summary."  
"Your Dad is the very devil from the bottom of Hell and you two are daemon-spawn. Also, your mother... well, stuff. Basically, your Dad is after all the historical houses in the area, drawn by the hatred against tradition, making the families leave their land and home, blah blah blah. I must say, my mother's exp ****ression was something of a novelty to me - she normally never listens to aunt Giselle for more than three minutes at a time."  
"OK, how did the topic even... Crap" the bell almost deafened them.  
"See you at lunch."  
  
#  
  
"I told my mother what happened during the competition - she couldn't come, Theresa caught a bad cold - and said that it was a pity you had been sick, because otherwise it would have been a proper challenge. The moment aunt Giselle heard your name she started spouting things like 'black-hearted bandit' or 'heartless monster'. She sounded like a heroine from a very bad romance. So, I said she should stop, because we two are, like, dating, and she went  _nuclear_. I mean it, we could have powered the whole town out of that explosion... Mina?"  
"Nah. Go on."  
"You looked weird."  
"Absolutely normal."  
"Not sure, but if you say so... Anyway, aunt Giselle said I can't be dating the daughter of that barbarian... You're doing this again."  
"Nope."  
"You are."  
"Theodore, finish your bloody story or I will hit you."  
"Stop cursing,  _Wilhelmina_ , or I won't kiss you today."  
"Hah, I'm curious how long you'd last."  
"I was ready to wait two years. You will learn to stop cursing by then, I suppose?"  
She rolled her eyes.  
"The story. Aunt Giselle, going crazy."  
"Barbarian, yes. And she said your Dad was supposedly planning to raze some old house and build a new one over it, just like that, without any oversight or anything. Or, because she had at least three versions, he was going to remove the family and give them no chance to find a proper new place. No idea how she thinks he could do that, if they are owners of the place, but when I asked, she started claiming you had applied your  _feminine wiles_  and I'm under your spell. Have you? Just checking, you know."  
Mina scrunched her nose.  
"Not sure I have any."  
"You don't" Rose informed her cheerfully from the top of the wall. "Also, your aunt is crazy, Strickland. And the lunch break is almost done, so she has to eat something, or she will faint and Mom will tan my hide - or cut my computer hours, I suppose."  
Mina rolled her eyes, but obediently tore into her sandwich.  
"We have... to tell Dad... though."  
"Absolutely" Teddy agreed. "She sounds crazy, and I think mother was a bit worried."  
"But this sounds like someone fed her a lot of absurd crap. What Dad is doing is just helping someone build a new house on their property - not razing the old one or anything - just like it... Well, to make sure the family  _has_  somewhere to live at all. Pemberley house sucks to live in, too, despite the fact that it's very fancy and has been updated with a lot of convenient solutions. There is a number of things you just can't do - starting with replacing the windows and ending with the stone floors."  
Rose nodded.  
"Yeah, Dad does what he can, but can't solve everything without general renovation. And to do that he'd have to spend a heap of money  _and_  we'd need a place to live in that time anyway."  
"So this is what is happening at that place where is society is protesting - the family wants a new, modern, simple house, situated next to the original one, but isolated, and to have the old one updated as much as they can and then converted to some useful purpose - like a museum, or a cultural centre, or whatever. Even making it a B&B would be easier on them, once they live separately, than staying in the old pile, with the drafts, cold floors, heavy windows and doors and old-fashioned furniture."  
"Yep. Now, eat this sandwich, little sister, or I'll hit you."  
"Teddy! She's threatening me!"  
He managed not to burst into laughter with the whole mouthful of orange juice, but it was close. He swallowed it and looked at her with reproach.  
"If I choke on my food one of these days, you won't have a knight in shiny armour to save you, you know?"  
"But, Teddy...!"  
She fluttered her eyelashes at him.  
"Don't" he said sternly. "Eat, she is quite correct."  
"You two are ganging up on me!"  
"Well, we  _are_ both older than you, aren't we?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter as soon as I can, but it's less than half-done...


	22. Cause home is where you are - p5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We learn more about the Historical Society.  
> Certain other develpments occur

On Monday morning Lizzy woke up with something of an incipient headache. She rolled in bed, pulling the duvet over her head, trying to block everything out, but nothing helped. Even as she rested her face in the silkiness of the pillow, she was further irritated by the small scratch at her neck - the tag on her shirt was now digging at her skin.  
It was going to be one of these days.  
She got the girls out in time for them to catch the bus, blinking blearily in the light filtered through the clouds. She really needed to find her glasses. The weather was going to be atrocious. She always got headache when the light was diffused in that way, no exceptions.  
Maybe it was time for a new pair, actually. Why not. She could probably write them off as a work-related expense.

#

The new job was reasonably challenging but not very far outside of her comfort zone, so once she had ingested the required dose of painkillers and brewed a pot of tea, she curled up on William's chair in the library and went to work.  
The heady aroma of old books and slight undertone of dust soothed her and allowed her to work that much faster. She fetched a reference book from "her" room (barely used now, except for keeping mostly still-packed boxes of books and craft materials) and spread the notebooks on the large, heavy table.  
There were some luxuries only a big house could provide.  
For a moment, she just stood there, caressing the dark, smooth wood of the tabletop.  
And of all of this I might have been mistress for the last thirteen years. Had I not been a whiny, uncommunicative idiot. Well, better late than never.  
The chair was luxurious and, being made to fit a big man like William, dwarfed her slightly, yet giving her the comforting feeling of being embraced rather than loomed over. Pulling her laptop into a new position, she propped a notebook on a reading stand next to it and got back to work with newfound enthusiasm.  
Which lasted all of about twenty minutes, because her phone rang.  
MOTHER  
"Oh, that's just grand" she sighed and tapped the green icon.

####

Elizabeth's voice was coming very clearly through the small crack in the library door. Very, very clearly. Probably more than she would have wished.  
"And I will live in as much sin as I wish to!"  
He jumped, just a bit, but managed to stay quiet.  
"I don't give rat's ass about the neighbours. If you ask me, you can tell them I have joined a convent. Or, I don't know, I've run away to Norway. To study trolls. Basically, tell them whatever, I don't... No, I don't care about it either. Yes, I know my classmates have brilliant lives, all around. Absolutely. Yes, she is a model, I've seen her in the papers. No, still don't care. For one, I'm too short. And my boobs are too big. Yes, I'm so going to use this word. BOOBS."  
A pause.  
And the temperature fell a few degrees.  
"No. You don't get any say in how I bring up my kids. They are mine and mine alone. Well, William's. Not yours, not Dad's. And yes, I am reasonably sure I know who their father is, it's not like we're in a bloody Mamma Mia reenactment. Good to know my own mother's opinion of my morals, thank you."  
He pushed the door open and peeked inside, but didn't find her.  
"Don't you dare. You have no right to threaten me like this. No. And no, even if you try to declare me unfit as a parent, I'm not the only legal guardian Mina has. Oh, you have no idea, mother. Simply no idea. No. I don't give a fuck. No."  
The clattering of the mobile on wood punctuated the last sentence.  
Oh, Lizzy.  
He stood there for a moment, trying to decide whether she would be more angry if he came in to comfort her or if he sneaked out quietly.  
Comforting won.  
He pulled the door closed behind himself and approached Elizabeth, who was now curled up in his grand desk chair, both hands in her hair, pulling slightly. Sending some unknown deity a quick thanks for the fact that he had dressed rather casually that morning, he crouched in front of her.  
"Lizzy?"  
"You heard?"  
"I'm afraid the passengers boarding the train at Matlock have heard. What did that..." he swallowed the noun "what did she want?"  
"To piss me off?"  
"She does this even without resorting to usage of modern technology. Was there anything specific she wanted to discuss? Something we could ask Charles to squash...?"  
She rolled her eyes and slid forward, pulling him in closer and resting her cheek on the top of his head.  
"She wanted to inform me that people have been asking about me and how I'm doing. And that there are rumours about me running away with some man, because I pulled Mina from school so abruptly. And that I'm failing in my basic duty of securing you. Also, that my classmates have burgeoning careers in various trades, including international modelling, real estate, trade and being a trophy wife."  
"That last one is a career, too?" he pulled her closer, off the chair and into his lap.  
"Well, I suppose for some it is the epitome of the Regency Myth. Catching a man and being set for life."  
"If you wanted to..." he shrugged. "We could make her shut up."  
"But you mean as in 'hiring a sniper to take a shot at her' or something less dramatic?"  
He bit the inside of his cheek.  
"How do you feel about... No, another question. What is a chance that anyone in your family knows something about cars?"  
"Please. Dad is like a geek of old cars. He can recognise a 50's Skoda by its front lamps setup, or whatever."  
He allowed himself a small smirk.  
"And new ones?"  
"That would be Lydia. Dad, too, but he tries to hide it. Why?"  
"Just thinking..." he mused, not looking at her directly. "You will find this probably a bit middle-age-crisis-y, but how do you feel about Jaguars?"  
She looked at him with a suspicious frown.  
"As in animals or as in bloody expensive cars?"  
He pursed his lips to avoid smiling.  
"The second one."  
"William..."  
"To my defence, I... No, I have none. I simply bought it. Can't really explain it away. It's waiting to be used, in the secure garage in Lambton. Has been delivered recently, I didn't even have time to test it yet. But we could use it next time we go to London."  
She was rubbing the tip of her nose, her lips trembling with suppressed smiles.  
"You have a Jag."  
"Yes...?"  
"You haven't told me that when we were going to London the last time."  
"It hadn't been delivered yet at the time."  
She leaned closer, breathing in his laundry-aftershave-pine-wood-warm cotton scent.  
"You want to bludgeon my family with a luxury car?"  
"Why not?" he shrugged. "Whatever works."  
"You are a naughty boy, Mr Darcy" she tapped his nose with her finger.  
He caught that hand and quickly pressed a lingering kiss to the thin skin of her wrist.  
"Give me twenty minutes of your precious invoiced time and I will show you just how naughty."  
A split second later he wanted to smack himself and then crawl under the table and die there. Yes, they had slept in the same bed for the last few days - ever since their guests had left. They cuddled. They kissed, a lot. Still, they had not progressed to anything more... advanced. Definitely not to intim...  
"Oh, only twenty minutes?" she asked with a sad pout. "Is this all you can offer me, Mr Darcy? Measly twenty minutes? I may have to reconsider our agreement, I think - maybe I need to find myself someone slightly... younger? More... eager? Fancy cars and big houses are all good and fine, but a girl needs something solid to..."  
"Oh, you...!"  
He pulled her down, into his lap, capturing her lips with his, dragging her closer and closer, both hands on her rounded hips, catching the belt loops of her trousers to bring her flush with him.  
"I will show you younger and more eager" he whispered into the pink shell of her ear. "Just, maybe, not in the library where everyone may walk in."  
And so he proceeded to, barely giving her time to save her work on the laptop and whisking her upstairs, locking the bedroom door and snogging her senseless until she went slightly weak in the knees and her breaths came in desperate puffs.  
They only crawled out of bed once they noticed the time and calculated that the girls would be home in less than half an hour.

####

She felt... different. It was one thing to know she had gone without any kind of relationship for these thirteen years, because she had never been one for one-night-stands or silly flings and being a freelancer and a single mother didn't leave her a lot of time for dating. It was however a deeply humbling thing to find out the love of her life had done the same when he definitely had had more than enough chances to find someone else.  
William's mumbled assurances had warmed the skin they were breathed onto and her heart at the same time.  
It was lovely to lie down in post-coital haze, being held securely to William's dependable warmth, cocooned in the blankets and duvets. It felt equally good to lean on him as they sat to tea, waiting for the twins' arrival. There was something changed, even on a purely physical level. They left much fewer inches between them as they sat at the table - in fact, there were no inches at all at certain moments. Will's free hand wandered to her hip by itself and secured her snuggled closer to him, repeatedly. Her lips found their way to his clean-shaved cheek more than once.  
It felt so new and so theirs at the same time.

####

"I just had the most inconvenient thought a man can have in such a situation" he groaned under the weight of sudden reflection. "Lizzy, are you... I mean, we didn't use any..."  
She giggled. The faintly musical way she laughed always attracted him, but right now he felt a bit annoyed with her enjoyment of his discomfort. She must have noticed it, because soon there was hand caressing his face and she leaned in closer.  
"Don't worry. I'm on the pill. I need it to manage my cycle. We will be fine. And, Will..." she smiled and rose on her knees, forcing him to look up at her. "Even if I wasn't on anything, would we really need to worry?"  
His brain stuttered to a halt.  
Well, there were all the downsides of pregnancy - hormonal imbalances, mood swings, sleepiness, nausea and physical discomfort.  
But... Well, they had only discussed it no more than week earlier. They had considered it, yes. They agreed that having more children right now would not be optimal.  
But... It wouldn't have been a catastrophe, would it?  
He pulled her closer.  
"We have to finish the house first" he reminded her lightly. "Unless you want to inhale all these lovely fumes when your hormones go into overdrive and make you twice as sensitive to smells as normally."  
She shuddered.  
"I agree, not the best idea, when we take the house into account" she sighed. "Yet, otherwise..." she smiled, cocking her head to the side. "Let me put it like this, Mr Darcy: you better finish that house soon."  
He nodded and rearranged her into a more comfortable position, resting against his chest, allowing him to hide his face in her hair.  
"Now that we've covered the topic of children we don't have yet, I think we need to consider the pair that is already hanging around the house."  
She sighed and rolled her head to nuzzle against his shirt.  
"Meaning what?"  
"I think we'll have to talk to them."  
"But..."  
"It's high time. We should have done this before, but I never thought..."  
"Mina knows everything about birds and bees."  
"So does Rose. And a bit about farm animals, too, actually..."  
"So, what do you want to talk to them about?"  
He sighed.  
"The rules? I mean, what kind of rules did your parents have for you all about dating?"  
She squirmed and looked away.  
"They never..."  
There was a pause. Just a beat as he cocked his head to the side and looked at her.  
"Lizzy?"  
"Dad never paid attention... He never saw me as a girl-girl. Jane was always reasonable and never caused any trouble and he never really cared about the other three. So there were no rules. I'm not even sure what rules there could be."  
He rubbed his nose, trying to focus.  
"Not sure either" he admitted. "But... I don't feel comfortable with them just... just..."  
"Teddy is a good boy" she pointed out. "It's not like they are being very sneaky about it. Most of the time Rose is with them or they are at school or..."  
"Liz" he groaned, leaning back on the sofa and pulling her closer. "I was a fifteen-year-old boy. They are a mess of hormones and idiotic ideas barely kept in check by school, being too tired to think and the possibility of getting slapped in the face. Reason and sense don't even make it to the top five causes for proper behaviour."  
"But he seems..." she tried to put it in the right words. "So upright. Also, I don't believe you for a moment, Will Darcy. I don't imagine you as a fifteen-year-old Don Juan!"  
"Well, I didn't really do that much. But I certainly fantasised about it. So I know what young men think about and I'm not allowing one of these creatures near my daughters without supervision!"

#

From the window, they saw the girls hurrying up to the house, very intently discussing something. The moment they entered the house, the news exploded.  
"Teddy said his aunt said he is not supposed to be dating me because you're a monster!"  
William stood still and the "we need to talk" he had prepared died on his lips.  
"Teddy... dating... what?" he managed to utter, feeling suddenly completely disoriented and thrown off the track.  
"Teddy said his aunt was talking crazy and she called you a heartless monster because you make people leave their houses and that you force them to move to tiny flats or cottages and then raze the old building to the ground, leaving them with nowhere to live."  
Elizabeth didn't manage to stifle a giggle.  
"Kitten, what are you talking about? How did this even become a topic?"  
Rose pushed their jackets into the hall closet.  
"Teddy told Mina in the morning that his aunt was taking crazy stuff. She says Dad steals people's houses under the guise of renovation and then they are left with no house and no money."  
"And that you're planning to get rid of half of the houses in the county."  
"More or less. And that you want to demolish all traditional buildings."  
"And that people will lose their homes and land."  
"And that Teddy shouldn't come near Mina because she is demon-spawn."  
"Teddy thinks his aunt had gone crazy and his mom is worried."  
"And that's all for the Historical Society for today."  
"And we've got tons of homework."  
"So, upstairs, little sister."  
"After you, old woman."  
"Ooh... you little..."  
"Calm down or you'll overtax yourself, my poor senior citizen."  
"Impudent girl!"  
The workroom door shut behind them.  
William turned to Elizabeth, but she looked equally disoriented.  
"What has just happened?"

#

A half hour and one call to the Stricklands later they had learnt a few things.  
The Historical Society was definitely Up To Something, capital letters.  
Irene Strickland's sister, Gisela, had been thoroughly brainwashed by someone.  
The theories she spewed were worrying enough for Percy to actually take notes.  
"I thought I would call you later today, Darcy" he admitted with a sigh. "I came back rather late yesterday, a week business trip, you see. Enormous pile of things to deal in the office, too, so I didn't have time during the day. Now, Teddy told me he related the most salient points to your daughters, but I suppose you'd like to hear some details..."  
And details there were, from the supposed plans to flatten the area for council buildings to poor landowners being kicked out of their property into pounding rain.  
"Gisela always struck me as slightly... prone to flights of fancy" Percy sounded apologetic and embarrassed "but she had never before expressed herself in such a manner. I think... She must have come under someone's influence on one of these meetings."  
"Thank you, Strickland. I appreciate your frankness. It will be of enormous help to us. Please, do let me know if you hear anything similar from other sources, will you?"  
"Absolutely. I know you do good work and I've seen some of your projects that have gone live recently. Nobody can complain about how they had been conducted."  
"Thank you again. It's scary how quickly one can lose face if something goes, as the kids now say, viral."  
"Not a problem, Darcy. I will let you know, absolutely."

####

She couldn't even focus on work again until late that evening. The whole debacle with Teddy's crazy aunt and the Historical Society had thrown William severely and they spent the rest of the afternoon researching the structures of that organisation and trying to find any friends of William that would give them some kind of more personal relationship to anyone on the inside.  
It turned out that, in fact, a large number of elderly relatives of almost everyone in the area belonged to the group and some were willing (if reluctantly) to talk to William away from the protest line.  
"She says she doesn't believe you would be able to steal someone's house - but she mostly says it because she doesn't trust your aunt Catherine, not because she is personally convinced of your overwhelming virtues."  
She winced as they listened on the loudspeaker, but William interrupted his old classmate.  
"Josh, what do you mean about my aunt Catherine? What does she have to do with all... Oh don't tell me."  
"Yeah, I'm afraid so. She's been actually making tours of the neighbourhood, talking about estate stuff. I was going to call you about that horse you supposedly have on sale - Star?"  
William ground his teeth and looked up at her with a murderous expression.  
"No, we are not selling her. My aunt is no representative of the estate interests. If there is anything else she had offered, or will offer, ignore her completely. She has no right to sell anything from Pemberley."  
"Well, we didn't hear about anything except the horse, but you may have people coming to view parcels of land pretty soon."  
Elizabeth cursed softly.  
And it wasn't the only conversation that went that way in the next few hours.  
Which, as a whole, left her utterly drained and tired emotionally, but finally able to focus on her work at around eleven.  
The house was silent, small noises of an old building notwithstanding.  
The girls were in their room - no "talk" for them, yet. This could wait.  
William had drifted upstairs sometime around half ten, extracting a promise from her that she would finish before midnight.  
She spread the notes on the table and opened the database script on the laptop.  
"OK, that looks... doable" she mumbled and started putting in a query to bring her the set of data she was aiming for.  
Of course he had to come for her and almost bodily bring her upstairs at half past twelve.  
She wasn't protesting very loudly, though.

####

Temperature dropped slightly.  
The girls dug in their wardrobe for warmer sweaters.  
Elizabeth located the box labelled "sock yarn".  
William took a day off at the office and together with Brian and other estate workers spent whole Tuesday securing more delicate rosebushes and trees against frost.  
Mrs Reynolds unearthed a crate of lemon and ginger preserve and brewed pot after pot of ginger-infused tea.  
Cold draft bit their bare feet in the morning.  
The wind brought scents of leaves, rain and smoke.  
Someone was having a bonfire on one of the pastures.  
Sheep were herded to their winter shelters and hay was being transported in huge loads to stock for colder months.  
The weather was turning.

####

Georgiana watched them as they splashed in the water. Sometimes, just sometimes, she wished she had had a sister and a more relaxed childhood. An upbringing that didn't consist in equal percentage of "be quiet, Daddy is thinking" and "uphold the family name" served to her by her aunts. One definite positive of her own youth was the distinct lack of Aunt Catherine in the picture. She hoped the changed circumstances now would be some kind of compensation for Rose for the years spent with their least favourite relation.  
She envied the girls their childlike resilience. Only a month, even less than that, and they were as relaxed with each other as if they had grown up together. The grownups were still trying to work with the others without clashing, but the girls were perfectly assimilated. Of course, they had the two months of summer as practice, but the level of familiarity they were displaying was uncanny.  
Right now, Mina was revelling in the idea of finally teaching Rose something purely physical. School outings and occasional visit to the pool were nothing in comparison to regular training Mina's school had offered since daycare. Mina swam like a little fish, while her sister treaded water stiffly, holding onto a swimming board and watching the younger one with a bit of annoyance.  
She hoped that whatever Will and Lizzy had been trying to hash out with each other it wouldn't take much longer - despite the temperature of the water, the girls were starting to look a bit blue and they had to go home at some point.  
She glanced at the clock and shrugged.  
"If they don't wish to be disturbed, lets' hope they will have finished by the time we get back."  
They were out of the water and under a hot shower in minutes and girls started regaining their natural colours as they scrubbed vigorously.  
"I wish we had sauna in the showers" Rose sighed wistfully. "Marika said that when they visited Finland with her family, every flat had a sauna and there was a huge one at the pool, in the showers."  
"Maybe we can ask Dad to put a sauna in the new house" Mina suggested from her spot under the pounding water. "It would be nice to get into one after coming back from school. Especially if it snows."  
"Well, you can try, but I'd hurry up if I were you" Georgiana tilted her head under the spray to wash away the shampoo. "Or they will have to redesign the whole thing just to fit a sauna room in."  
The girls looked at each other and smiled widely.  
Uh-oh.

####

All three "girls" looked tired and slightly sleepy, so, after exchanging a look with William, she decided to forgo the complicated topic of teenage love for the day, but to request their daughters' help with something of a vastly different calibre.  
As they semi-crawled upstairs after eating a light supper, she accompanied them, carrying additional blankets for their beds.  
"Now, I will need your help. Both of you. Different tasks, both interesting, each requiring certain level of... maturity."  
Mina frowned at her from the heap of pillows she had managed to collect.  
"What is it?" she finally broke the silence. "Mum?"  
"Well, we need you to take part in our wedding. As in being part of the wedding ceremony."  
Mina shrugged.  
"I suppose you want me to sing? Do you have anything chosen?"  
Elizabeth just smiled.  
"Go and talk with aunt Georgiana. Not now. When she is up. Pick a few songs and try them out. I trust you two to pick something... appropriate. Can you make this a surprise for us? Please?"  
Mina nodded slowly, but Elizabeth saw her confusion at the request.  
"I want to have something there that I won't have to plan myself" she sat on Mina's bed and pulled her younger daughter in. "Rose, on the other hand..."

#

"How did it go?"  
She yawned and closed the laptop, putting it away on her night table.  
"Mina will work with Georgiana and Rose is somewhat scared of the responsibility with which we are burdening her."  
"She will cope. It's not a big task, but rather crucial to the whole proceedings. She will be fine."  
"I sold it to her as a simple means of ensuring someone without the need to show off will be taking care of them. Also, I suggested that if not her, then Richard. She took the task rather eagerly then. She is still a bit scared, though."  
"We just need to make sure she knows we trust her" he pulled her closer and nestled his nose in her plait. "Now, where were we, Miss Bennet?"


	23. Cause home is where you are - p6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A Society meeting, a Talk, a little crisis and some kitchen shenanigans.  
> Also, singing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Because NaNoWriMo is approaching, I'll be trying to write this faster and post in more regular fashion - especially as I don't want to fall behind with the dates - I'm barely 2 weeks ahead now ;) The piece below is 26th and 27th of October.

After Monday revelations, girls had been tasked with listening at school whether anyone was bringing up the topic of William's business. Elizabeth felt awful telling them to be on a constant lookout, but they agreed readily enough. Considering what they had heard from Teddy, they already had had a taste of what their parents were now going through.

Because Elizabeth was scared. One part of it was that if someone was aiming at William's company, it would affect them financially in the long run - and with the house construction being formally underway, they would need the steady income. Of course William had savings and investments and resources, and there were ways to get money in case of a family crisis, but the most important point was that the company was... it was what he _wanted_ to do. If that weird situation continued, he would lose it - and people would lose jobs - and his customers would lose their investments - and the Darcy name would be affected...

She rubbed her nose and pushed away from the table. That mess was _not_ helping her to focus. She felt as if there was something hanging over their heads, waiting to crash and it kept throwing her off balance and affecting her work.

"Lizzy?"

She twirled in place, facing Georgiana, who had almost tripped over the end of the carpet in her hurry.

"I just got a call from Lucy who got a call from her sister who works at the community centre in Lambton. She says the Historical Society is meeting there today and William _is not picking his phone_. He is on some site inspection and probably out of network range or something. What can we do?

And suddenly the decision was made. She saved her work, closed her laptop and breathed deeply.

"We go there. Leave a message with Mrs Reynolds, ask her to tell the girls. Let me change into something appropriate."

She quickly shot a text to William, explaining their intentions and asking him to join them whenever he was back to civilisation.

 

#

 

Georgiana's car had the undiscussed virtue of being small and therefore easy to park in the last possible spot on the little parking lot. They tumbled out of it quickly, straightening their attire and hair.

"Do we look professional?"

"You do. I just have some hope for not looking as frightened as I actually am."

"Be cool, little sister. Just be cool. We are the ones who know the truth, right?"

"Right. So, what's the plan? We go in, we take over the scene?"

"We go in and listen. If there is nothing about William, we quietly move out and scram. If they start badmouthing him, we wait until the end of the rant and then ask to be heard."

They definitely had a chance to be heard, quite soon. The "open meeting" was, in fact, quite open to various opinions on one William Darcy (as long as they were negative).

"I think this is Teddy's aunt Gisela" Georgiana leaned over to whisper in Lizzy's ear. "Going by the rhetoric."

Elizabeth was, frankly, slightly surprised with a well-dressed, superficially quite stable-looking woman in late fifties, who took the stage and started spouting the most incredible sensationalist "facts".

"...no home to call your own! And it's not like you would be able to expect support from a person of his character!"

"That sounds vaguely familiar" Georgiana mused.

"After all, the man had the temerity to remove his own family from where they lived...!"

"Ah-ha" Elizabeth sighed and started making her way towards the stage. "No way in hell I'm letting this stand."

It was actually a good thing to be a new face in a case like this. Nobody protested when she sidled up to the guy with a microphone and told him she wanted to say "a few words about Darcy".

"Ah, hello" she tapped the mic and took a fortifying breath.

She hated public speaking.

But she hated these people more, and Georgiana was there to support her, so she dived right in.

"Yeah, so. We all just heard a lot of interesting things about one of the main investors in our county. Fascinating stuff. I would love to address all of these points but then we would be here until dawn. So, let me just take a few of them, if you're OK with this. One, this kind lady" she nodded to the last speaker "Had mentioned that Darcy had removed his own relatives from a house. This is quite true, actually, in case anyone doubted."

"Hear, hear!" someone cried from the audience.

"He also has numerous investments in various estates in the neighbourhood that are aimed at moving the families out of their current houses and changing the character of these houses."

"Exactly!"

"Who is that girl?!"

"Doesn't matter, let her speak!"

"Thank you, sir. Also, Darcy is obnoxious, stiff and is so public school he _bleeds_ it. And yes, he has two daughters and nobody knows with who exactly, probably apart from him and that woman. Suspicious, ain't it?"

She saw Georgiana hid a grin in her high collar.

"OK, so let me give you the nasty, filthy details about all of these points, do you think you can take them?"

The roar of enthusiasm was overwhelming.

_Well, let's see..._

"Do you know who it was that he removed from his house, less than a month ago? It was his elderly aunt, older sister of his own mother. Disgusting, isn't it? And he just threw... Well, actually, he told her to pack her bags, which she didn't do, because she thought she would be able to convince him to let her stay. But he was absolutely immovable! He told her she has to go. And you know why? Tiny little thing, actually. Nothing unusual - in some circles at least, I suppose. She has been stealing and burning the mail from his daughter's mother for the last thirteen years."

Someone made a sound of surprise.

"He was actually even more unreasonable about what her daughter did. His cousin Anne has helpfully dropped Rose off in Lambton one afternoon... without a phone, a purse or an umbrella. This was a month ago, some of you may remember that rather wet Friday afternoon. Kid caught an infection because of that, so Darcy went a bit spare and told his cousin to get out of his house. The house, mind you, where he had fed them and allowed them to live for free for more than ten years. It must have been a terrible shock to the two of them."

Whispers went through the room.

"As to the investments, well, I've read about some of them and it sounds all rather terrifying. What he does is even more insidious than what that lady said. He not only gets the families out of the houses, he also makes it _a project_ to change these houses into community centres, museums and other such awful institutions. While the families, probably ensnared by some promises of comfortable living and modern bathroom appliances, would move to new-built, disgustingly reasonably constructed buildings. Awful things - central heating, properly closing windows, no drafts, no icy cold stone floors... How can a human being live like this, I ask you!"

Someone laughed and the ripple of hilarity spread. Soon there was half of the audience snickering and another half looking uncomfortable.

"Now, to the last point - he has kids, nobody knows with whom. And he is a..."

The door opened quietly and William stepped in.

"Well, he isn't the friendliest of human beings around. Considering how many people try to damage his reputation or work actively against his company, I am actually surprised he is still willing to hire anyone from the area or do business with locals. It would be well within his ability to simply ignore everyone and contract all his work to bloody Yorkshire!"

Silence. Dead silence.

"Who are you?"

Ah-ha. Aunt Gisele.

"Elizabeth Bennet. It was nice to talk to you all. Please, consider the points I've mentioned. There are some others, too, which I won't try to explain too much, but give them a thought. Anne de Bourgh had a stash of pot in her room. We are not sure if she was driving under influence when she left Rose in Lambton, but there is a chance that yes. Did you ask _any_ of the families who are having houses built for their opinion? They are the ones who approached Darcy Building for a contract, not the other way 'round. Oh, and if you got an offer to buy something from Pemberley - ground, animals, whatever - check who the offer came from. There is a limited group of people authorised to sell things and Mrs de Bourgh is _not_ one of them."

"What about the twins?"

_Aunt Gisele._

"What about them?"

"They are... unnatural! How can twins be born on two different days?"

Someone giggled.

"I assure you, madam, they are quite natural. They kicked, squirmed and got born like most children these times. Just were unlucky to be born around midnight - one before the clock struck and the other, after."

"Who are you, girl?"

Up close the woman seemed slightly more haggard than well put together.

"I'm most definitely _not_ a girl, Ma'am. And I'm these twins' mother."

The meeting exploded.

 

#

 

"You... You are a most incredible creature, Lizzy Bennet."

William's arms around her tightened.

"How did you manage to just go up there and talk to them? I _know_ you don't like speaking up in public."

She nodded, face hidden in the opened lapels of his jacket.

"They were talking about you" she said finally. "I think I saw red. I'm sure I saw red. I mean, they... They were just so stupidly misinformed! What was I supposed to do, just stand there and listen to them abuse you?"

"You could have waited for me" he suggested, his hand making its way into the hair at the nape of her neck.

"Which would not have worked" Georgiana remarked from their side. "She only managed to do this because she took them by surprise and they didn't know she is one of us. If they had noticed she came with me - and remembered I'm your sister - it wouldn't have been as successful."

Elizabeth nodded slowly.

"They thought I was one of them, willing to just vilify you on spot, like everyone else. Probably counting on some new dirt, with me being a new face. And when I started by agreeing with what that dreadful woman said, I totally sounded like it."

"You _what_?"

"Shh, she was good, Will. She first agreed with them and then completely blew it apart. It was _perfect_."

"So when I told them that yes, you told aunt Catherine to leave, but added that she had been stealing and burning your mail, they were unsure. And then I explained about Anne leaving Rose - well, Mina - in Lambton..."

"And then she ridiculed that whole 'throwing families out of their houses' angle, very nicely, too."

"When I came in, you were going to have a go at my character, I think."

She snorted.

"They were counting on it. Anyway, I think we may count ourselves as winners for this round. By the way, I learnt who is the instigator of the whole problem."

He shrugged.

"Aunt Catherine, I'd bet."

"Well, yes and no. Anne is taking an active part in demolishing Darcy name, too."

"She has never been very smart."

"She isn't, but neither were people she was talking to. In that, at least, she displayed a certain brand of sneakiness, which is _kind of_ smart, actually. She chose people who were already somewhat negative towards you and exploited that."

"Survival instinct" he chuckled. "OK, now, my brave lady knight, let's go home. I'll call Stacy and tell her to make sure someone from the office is out with every group of workers tomorrow, just to let us know if there are any more protests."

"You think there will be?"

"Let's not be too optimistic. This way the surprise will be all the sweeter."

 

####

 

He was making call after call, ever since he parted with Elizabeth and Georgiana (going to pick up the mail and then home) and went to the office to inform every relevant person of potential problems they may be facing as a company. Jonathan was the last one for the day and he was more than a challenge, after an afternoon already full of challenges.

"I'm sorry, Will, but apparently they just can't make any solution that wouldn't require an additional storage tank. I mean, they say they tried, but the girl who was supposed to be coding it for them said it's impossible. No idea what they thought, hiring someone like that for serious work, but apparently she was cheap, or something."

William fought the urge to smack his best contractor on the back of his head. Over the phone. Elizabeth certainly knew some kind of software that would allow one to do _that_.

"I don't think it's fair to blame a programmer for the fact that whoever sent her the specifications didn't have a good idea how to resolve the problem" he said stiffly. "She is supposed to code what they ask and not to work out the logical solution for them, at least not on that scale. If they didn't know how to do this and they dumped it on the coder it just means they are avoiding responsibility."

"But, William..."

"No. Just tell me, what other solution would _you_ suggest? If there was no computer system to do it, what would you have done?"

"But..."

"Think about it. It's like any other job - if I told you to design a "nice big house" and then I was unhappy with the outcome because the kitchen is too small, whose fault it is? Yours to not be able to read my mind or mine because I didn't tell you I wanted a big kitchen?"

The other side was silent.

"So please, don't trash-talk programmers, if you could. Now, on to the next point. How are we doing with the mains? All permissions were supposed to be in this week."

"Still waiting for the phone line, but otherwise all is in order. No worries, and the phone line isn't the priority right now. Power and water are."

"It would be better to have the area dug up once, but if we can start with what we have, that's fine."

They agreed on some more details of the work for the next few days and rang off.

William tapped the phone case for a moment in silence.

It was becoming rather unbearable, actually. The way people spoke, the way they behaved... They just had no idea. He used to have no idea, but hell, that had been over a decade earlier.

It was the middle of the afternoon and all he wanted was to sprint back home and hold Elizabeth.

But. The girls were out of school by now. He quickly thumbed at the phone and scrolled to Mina's number.

"Dad?"

"Kitten, what would your mother eat if she needed... I mean, favourite sweet. Anything, basically."

"What...?"

"Just want to get her some kind of comfort food. Suggestions? She used to like cheesecake..."

"Lemon meringue pie. She hates making them, but she loves to eat them. No idea why. I mean, they are lovely, no idea why she doesn't like making them."

"Lemon meringue, noted."

"Uh... something happened?"

He sighed.

"In a way, yes. I just thought, after a day like today, she may need something she didn't bake herself."

"OOkkk... Anything else?"

"Do you need anything from the shops? I promised your Mom I'll do the shopping today."

"Nah. Rose, you need Dad to get you anything?" a pause "Rose says she's fine, too."

"Then I will see you at home. Thanks, kitten."

 

#

 

Mina was sitting in the shallow, warm pool, her face set in such an expression that strangers started giving her a wide berth when they glanced at her. Rose sat on the edge of the small square of water, waiting.

And waiting.

Mina had already said a few sentences that didn't really string together in a logical manner, but now she was silent, looking at the glass wall of the heated section of the pool complex. She felt the greying twilight outside reflected the state of her soul perfectly.

A kid ran by, screaming in joy and jumped into the pool, suddenly drenching them both.

Mina winced.

Finally, she shook the water away and licked her lips.

"They said we are not allowed to _date_ as such."

"Umh."

"We can only hold hands or hug, but just a bit. And that we are always supposed to be visible to other people."

"Sounds reasonable?"

"Sounds like they don't _trust_ me to make the right decisions all just by myself" Mina pointed out.

Yeah. After the dinner, over the lemon meringue, despite the fact that Mom looked more than ready to just sit there, blissed out, The Talk had happened. And Mina was less than delighted with the limits their parents had set.

She was also very much unhappy with the way this reflected their opinion about Teddy.

"Not _you_ " Rose echoed her furious thoughts. "Dad said he knows what boys are thinking about at that age..."

"I just don't believe them" Mina scrubbed at her face and turned towards a seat on the other edge, where some kind of bubble-emitting equipment made the water look like a boiling cauldron. "It's _humiliating_. I would have never... I never even thought we _could_ try anything like... like that!"

"So what you wanted was to sit with Teddy on the lunch break, talk to him a lot on the phone, hug and kiss? With an option of a walk in some place like a park?"

"More or less."

Rose rolled her eyes and swam closer.

"So what's the deal? What difference does it make?"

Mine managed _not_ to whine at that question.

"Because it's like..." she threw up her hands in frustration. "I don't know. Like they told me not to skive off school. I could, technically, do it, right?"

"You'd get reported."

A sigh. Long-suffering.

"OK, a different example. I _could_ spend my pocket money on fizzy drinks, even though I know what Mum thinks about them. Unhealthy and bad for the teeth. I could. And I don't. Or I could buy candy and eat it in the evenings in our room. Or I could skip brushing my teeth. Or I could do a thousand other stupid things and they would never know and they don't tell me not to do them. Because I actually would not do them. But they just _had to_ tell me not to do all these things with Teddy that I _was not_ planning to do, ever, like, ever. Because... something."

"Because all the stupid things you've listed you would be doing by yourself" aunt Georgiana's hands landed on their shoulders. "And what they are afraid of is that once a second person is involved, it may become harder for you to stop yourself from doing it. Or him."

Mina slumped and leaned back on the edge.

"But _Teddy_ would never do them either...!" she whined finally.

"Mina..." her sister sidled up to her and looked at her sombrely. "Not that I'm casting aspersions at Teddy's character, because he is a very nice guy - since he got over his fear of girl cooties and started acting like a regular human being - but you don't really _know_ him. I mean, you met him a total of what, month and a half ago? I've known him almost my entire school life, because we overlapped in preschool and sometimes had mixed classes and a lot of trips together with his group, but... I mean, _you_ don't really _know him_. I know!" she raised a hand when Mina tried to interject something. "I _know_ he is a nice bloke. He was decent enough even last year, in the moments when he temporarily wasn't being an idiot, and now he seems to have undergone a huge change during the summer. Still it doesn't really mean anything, because I've never seen him with a girl before and I can't say I ever imagined him as anyone's boyfriend."

"So you say I shouldn't trust...?"

Mina winced at how small her voice sounded.

"No, I'm saying Mom and Dad have their reasons to be doubtful. And you saying 'Teddy this' and 'Teddy that' may look like you are... You know."

"Silly and naive" Mina sniffed in a rather disgusting fashion.

"Think 'Marianne Dashwood'."

"Now you are just being nasty."

 

####

 

"She isn't happy with us."

"Well, it's for her own safety."

She sighed.

"She isn't happy with us telling her... in this way."

"I know. And yet, I'm so not sorry about that. We needed to set the rules."

Elizabeth combed her hair back and started plaiting it.

Their younger daughter's pale face still stood sharp in her memory.

"Why was she that angry?" he asked finally. "I mean, I thought these rules were pretty much... straightforward. Reasonable"

The silence was troubled.

"I don't know" she admitted finally. "I can't really explain, because I've never had that problem."

"Rules, yeah, you told me."

She sniffed.

"No. Teen love. Well, apart from some celebrity worship, but that's not the same. I don't know what's going through her head. Hell, sometimes I don't know what is going through _mine_ and I'm not a hormone-driven teen. We'll need to somehow... make up to her for this."

He turned his desk chair to her and pulled her in.

"Why? I mean, we didn't say anything..."

"I think we need to talk to them more" she curled up and rested her head on his shoulder. "We got too complacent, we assume too much. We have to talk with them, or it will be just like with us."

He tipped her head up and pressed a small kiss to her lips.

"We don't want to ever find ourselves revisiting _that_ , right?"

She pulled him down for a proper, deep snog.

"So we definitely should avoid making that mistake with them _in the first place_."

"I absolutely agree" he turned them both back to the desk, strewn with papers. "In the meanwhile, since my sister is now helping us by allowing the girls to use up their excessive stores of energy, would the lady of the manor support her helpless husband in the awful task of tackling the numbers? I know someone is trying to pull a fast one on me here, but I'm not yet sure how to prove it."

"And I'm supposed to do this all while sitting in your lap...?"

"Well, we could take these papers to bed..."

 

#

 

"What are we going to do about aunt Catherine?"

He rolled his head back and groaned.

"I've spoken to my company lawyer, she is dealing with it. She was like a kid on Christmas morning when I told her I want her to file all this stuff with the court, because apparently complicated contracts are her speciality, but she had always wished for something more challenging. And I put her in contact with the sergeant, so they can coordinate and make this more effective. If we get enough people to testify about what happened in the Society, it will help immensely, because that is plain libel and it's our strongest weapon right now. We can add others as examples of the two of them working in coordination against me, but they are much more shaky. The bag found in Anne's room is not a conclusive proof she was using, so we can't really use it against them, and the mail fraud is only implicated - they admitted to it in front of witnesses, but that may not hold up in court, especially without any material proof. Anne leaving Mina in Lambton is not really child endangerment, because she left her in a known area, in town, not somewhere in the fields."

"But with enough people who can say that she told them you were trying to steal people's houses, despite the obvious idiocy of it, we have a better chance of getting them convicted."

"And if the lawyers can nicely divide the personal parts of the slander and the ones that were against the company, it will actually make two separate court cases. So even if one of them falls through, we still have a chance with the other" he sighed, stretching. "Stacy will be making an analysis of how potentially that slander may have affected us, in a long run, and what kind of impact it may have had on our reputation and credit score. And we will be talking to Brian to mitigate any issues that may crop up due to people being promised sale of parts of the Pemberley property. Karina - that's the lawyer - said that the fact that she made offers of sale of Star and pieces of land can be treated under more than one act and she is looking for the best way to proceed."

Elizabeth combed back the stray hair that managed to escape her plait.

"What about making sure they stay away? I mean, some kind of restraining order...?"

"Has to be processed by the court. Already filed, but it may take some time to be granted. For example, they both will have to have a hearing at court about it. it's not as easy as the TV shows make it seem."

"Blast it. They didn't approach us, or the girls, but what if they do?"

"We'll be careful and we will collect more evidence to help us get the order granted."

"Do you have any idea what they are doing right now?"

He laughed darkly.

"Apart from making uncle Harry miserable with their nagging? They mostly stay at his summer house and terrorise the part-time housekeeper. He complains to me continuously about their behaviour and I have very carefully restrained myself from asking if he really expects my sympathy."

"Well, he deserves to hear a few words of truth, I suppose. I remember him being rather annoyingly supportive of your aunt at times."

He snorted and hugged her closer.

"Rick actually agrees with you on that topic. We had a three-way call a few days ago and when his father started a tirade about his sister ordering the cleaning service about, Rick simply asked if he is now ready to admit I might have been taking a lot of family trouble on myself in the recent years. Uncle went quiet immediately and remained so through the rest of the call."

"Ah" she blinked and looked down to restrain a bit of a smile. "I always liked Richard. He might have been an unrepentant flirt, but I always liked him."

"Oh, he will never _stop_ being a flirt, but I think now he is keeping this limited to one person."

"Now I'm actually intrigued. Who has managed to make this bad boy go steady?"

"Ah, well..." William smirked. "Be patient."

 

####

 

Elizabeth curled up on the windowsill, leaning her head on the cold glass. The sudden drop in temperature overnight - from reasonable 15 degrees to barely over freezing - came with fog which made everything look a bit more eerie than English countryside was supposed to look. She would be willing to make a bet that there were fairies somewhere hidden in that fog, conspiring to bring misery to the mortals that would trespass on their ground, not seeing the warning signs hidden by the mists.

And it was only three days left until Halloween.

She shivered slightly despite the thick afghan she had pulled over her shoulders.

Behind her, in the room, William stirred and rolled to "her" side, ending up with an armful of pillow, which he hugged tightly to his middle.

She couldn't sleep.

Yet another night spent with her thoughts racing in circles.

It was the best thing she could do. It was the only thing she could do, in fact. There was no other solution that would satisfy everyone equally.

Why was she feeling so wretched then?

She had analysed and re-analysed and taken apart and broken into steps and all she could come up with was a wail "don't wanna lose my independence".

_Bloody hell. What_ _**do** _ _you want then, Lizzy? To stay single and let your hair flow in the wind as you ride through the glen, firing arrows into the sunset?_

She let her head fall, resting her forehead on her knees.

"Not that I am happy to interrupt such a fine display of maudlin despair, but _I_ started to feel a little chilly just from watching you freeze off your tush on that sill."

William was there, standing over her, large, warm and slightly rumpled from sleep. She peeked, not raising her head, and saw the large feet, toes curled against the cold stone, as he leaned over her, yawning.

"You _were_ going to come back to bed, weren't you? I mean, I understand that the charms of a cold piece of wood over even colder stone are much more attractive than a warm bed and someone who insists on holding onto you like a kid with a teddy bear, but I hoped basic human instinct would lead you back to the place where your skin will not be chilled to blue."

She rolled her head to the side and peered up at him.

"Not that I can feel it anymore" she shrugged with a slight grin. "I just couldn't sleep and this seemed like a better option than squirming in the bed and waking you up."

"If you can't feel it, it is the best indicator you should not be sitting on it. Come on, Lizzy, back to bed with you. It's bloody five o'clock, we still have two hours until the alarm."

She didn't want to. She wanted to indulge in a spot of sulking, right there, by the window. No, in fact she didn't want that _either_. She wanted to be able to make up her mind and stay with the decision.

She leaned towards him, hiding her face in the soft fabric of his shirt. There was one thing that she was sure about and that was William.

"Come on, Lizzy. Let's lie down, I will hold you and you will tell me what is going on in that brilliant brain of yours."

 

####

 

"My parents..." they said at the same moment, looking morosely at their lunch boxes.

Rose snorted softly and earned herself an angry glare from Mina.

"My parents had laid down some rules" she said as she picked a carrot stick and turned it in her fingers a few times. "No dates, as such. No disappearing into isolated places. No movies. No..." she bit into the piece of carrot.

"What?" he asked with trepidation.

"No 'hands-on'" Rose supplied helpfully. "You can hold hands and you can hug but if Dad sees your hand on any other part of Mina but her shoulder or waist, he will personally make sure you will be wearing a cast for a month."

Mina felt him sigh.

"Yeah, I suppose they should meet with my parents and negotiate on who will call the dibs on my mobility. My Dad threatened me with bodily harm if I cross the line of being a gentleman. No idea what they expected me to do. It's not like we would..."

"Dad says he doesn't trust your type" Mina decided to make use of the situation and leaned on his shoulder, closing her eyes, just for a moment.

"What?" he sounded offended. "Cadets? Rugby players?"

"Boys" Rose patted his hand and smiled. "He says he used to be one and he knows what kind of thoughts you have, you awful creatures."

Teddy heaved a sigh and Mina squeezed his hand mutely.

"Fine. Fine. We will just have to prove to them that we are actually able to be quite proper. It's not _that_ complicated, after all."

"It is kind of annoying, to have our own parents suspect us so" Mina added, looking down to where their fingers touched. "I mean, they allow us to do a lot of stuff unsupervised, why suddenly _this_?"

Rose shook her head and dug into her sandwich.

"Dad is just overprotective, you know. He doesn't trust anyone around us, but especially you. Probably, by the time _I_ start dating, he will chill a bit _and_ he probably will be less obsessive about me. A bit."

Mina opened a box of grapes and offered it mutely to Teddy.

"I just hope he will not object to us dancing" he sipped his water. "I mean, you _are_ coming to the Halloween Ball, right?"

"What?"

Rose frowned.

"How did we miss _that_?"

Teddy shook his head, just a bit.

"No idea, but the announcement was on... Ah. You weren't there."

Mina sighed.

"Wonder what else we missed. When is the ball?"

"Friday the 3rd. Full costume expected. Will you have time to prepare something? It may be a bit late..."

They smiled at each other widely.

"Oh, absolutely. I think we have just the thing."

Teddy made a little inquisitive sound, but they simply stuffed their faces with lunch and declined to answer when he tried interrogating them some more.

 

#

 

Rose was done with her homework and rather hungry (she claimed it had to be due to an excessive amount of sugar generated by Mina and Teddy), so she decided to check whether Mrs Reynolds had something already prepared for dinner that she could filch safely.

Mom was singing. In the kitchen.

There was a laptop sitting in the middle of the kitchen table and Mom was singing to the instrumental piece playing from it.

Rose peeked in, but Mom seemed to be quite intent on the enormous amount of mess she was making of various kitchen implements, while Mrs Reynolds was loading the dishwasher and smiling at her indulgently.

" _...like a summer evening breeze_

_Take your time,_

_Make it slow..._

_Andante, andante, just let the feeling grow..._ "

"Mom is on an ABBA binge again" Mina put her chin on Rose's shoulder. "Last time it took her three weeks to switch to something else."

Mom twirled, holding another plastic box.

"OK, what the hell?" Rose whispered frantically. "Why is she singing to Tupperware?"

"Cleaning spree. Don't interrupt. The code is not coming along as quickly as she wanted, so she decided to reset her brain. Mrs Reynolds suggested they may review all the old crap that has been stored in the kitchens for, like, ages. Mom..."

The external door to the kitchens opened quietly and their father entered, arms laden with large shopping bags. Mom was apparently too intent on the cake tin she had pulled from the back of one of the cabinets and didn't pay attention to his sudden appearance. Next twirl and two long steps brought her closer to him.

" _Andante, andante_

 _Tread lightly on my ground..._ "

Mina emitted an excited squeak as Dad fluidly placed the bags on the floor, liberated the tin from Mom's hold and gathered her into his arms and mock-waltzed across the few feet of free floor.

"Andante, Andante, I will not let you down" he finished, turning and leaning forward for a perfect dip, which made the ends of Mom's hair almost touch the floor.

They watched in bemusement as she blinked, frozen for a moment, upside down, suddenly aware of their presence. She quickly heaved herself upwards, bracing her free hand on Dad's shoulder.

"Oh, Tish, that's ABBA" Dad remarked lightly but with a small, strange smile.

"Don't you dare" Mom smacked his chest with an open palm and then they were kissing. Kissing. Like crazy.

Rose shot Mina a questioning look, but received a "no idea" stare right back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> How do you feel now about Aunt Catherine and her meddling?  
> Tell me! Or I will be most seriously displeased!
> 
> There are three movie references in this chapter, who can point out all of them? :) (one should be obvious...)


	24. We'll build the fire high - p1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Halloween market.  
> And an absolutely not a date.  
> Or two.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The reality kind of caught up to me, so I'm posting this later in the year than it happens.  
> So, here it is. End of October and quickly going into November. And November means the wedding ;)  
> (not today, no, but soon)
> 
> Also, my NaNoWriMo is going abysmally bad - I wrote 1,5k words of my novel and 4k of this story ;)

It was a slow weekend.

Correction.

It was _supposed_ to be a slow weekend.

It had started innocently enough - or "innocently", depending on one's opinion. The girls allowed them to sleep in - well, stay in bed - until eleven but then they have been nagged to get up, get out and join the land of the living. Once their breakfast was done, girls accosted her and explained their pressing need to spiffy up their princess dresses in preparation for a school ball. On Friday.

She sighed, yawned and sipped her coffee.

"I can only see the option to add the capes. Also, I could, if I was asked very nicely, make handbags. But only under one condition."

Two pairs of bright eyes blinked in sync and then narrowed.

"I don't want you two disturbing your father for the whole weekend. Unless the house is on fire, he is off limits. Last week was an absolute disaster and he still has to deal with the charity documents. So, please, go downstairs and help Mrs Reynolds. She is looking for someone to wash the preserve jars. And then..."

"I will take them to town" Georgiana piped up. "The Halloween fair is opening today. Maybe we will find some fun accessories to add. A crown or something. And there are always some games and a shooting booth and probably a haunted ride... Lottery, too, I suppose. And Lucy said there is going to be a lollipop workshop."

"Ah, _Lucy_ said" Elizabeth managed to stop the smile.

"Yes, _Lucy_. Her sister is super involved in all the community stuff and she is in the committee that organised this."

"Very well. You two still have some allowance left?"

The girls shrugged and nodded.

Well, London it wasn't, so they were probably saving most of it - not that many places to spend money on their way home _and_ they had been rather busy recently.

"I'll add a little something to that, but only when Mrs Reynolds reports all jars and pots washed properly."

The eyeroll was Lydia-class.

"Ah, Mom?"

"Yes, Mina?"

"Well... Considering the _rules_ and all that, if I should, hypothetically, see Teddy on the Fair, am I supposed to ignore him like totally, or am I allowed to talk to him? Because I wouldn't want to break _the rules_ , seeing how important they are to you two."

_Ah-ha. She will be sarcastic like hell about it. Not sure if it's just Mina being Mina, or it's the two of them..._

Because Rose was watching her with narrowed eyes.

"You don't have to _ignore_ him. Just keep to the limits Dad explained and it will be fine."

"Sure, but you said no dates, like, so would that be a date or not? I mean, I have _no experience_ so I can't say, really."

_They_ _**were** _ _growing up. Also, Mina was up in arms and defending_ _**Teddy** _ _of all people. I wonder what that boy has to say about all this._

"If you meet in a public place, with a lot of people around, and Rose and aunt Georgiana, I would not count this as a date. As long as you don't try to escape to where they can't see you."

Mina scrunched her nose.

"Why would we?"

_Indeed, why would you. My lovely, innocent daughters._

"Just remember, OK?"

An eyeroll.

"Fine. Fine. I'll go downstairs and see what the slavemaster can find for us."

Rose only shrugged and followed her, barely two steps behind.

"This is going to be a pain, isn't it?"

"She _is_ going to be testing us, if that's what you are asking about."

He wrapped his arms around her and pressed his face into the hair.

"She is going to try to make us feel guilty for setting these rules. We just have to stay strong."

"At least it's cold outside now" he murmured into her neck. "Imagine how bad it's going to be in summer."

"Stop it right here, Mr Darcy. Or I will have nightmares for the rest of the winter."

 

 

####

The kitchen was covered in jars. Dozens and dozens of jars. And jar lids.

Jars with clip tops.

Little rubber rounds.

And Mrs Reynolds was rubbing her hands like a second-rate villainess.

"Very easy task, my dears" she smiled widely. "Check the jars. Blue marker for ones that are fine, red marker for ones that have chipped rim."

Mina frowned, picking her markers.

"What for?"

"Would you rather have a jar that has sharp edge inside? Your mother asked for the slightly faulty ones to be put aside for painting" the housekeeper shrugged. "So make the mark somewhere at the bottom, please."

Next two hours were spent on companionable conversation and devouring of sandwiches Mrs Reynolds had prepared for her kitchen aides, until aunt Georgiana joined them with a notepad in hand. She closed the door behind her and looked carefully around the room.

"Ladies, I need your help" she stole a piece of bread from the main plate and sat at the side table, face solemn. "We have to work out music for their wedding. I will play, Mina will be singing. We have _two weeks_ , so we need to _focus_. And we need to pick stuff you already know, to cut down on practising. So, _what_ do you know?"

Mina placed the last jar she was handling (chipped) on the board and grimaced.

"Apart from 'Loch Lomond', you mean?"

"Well, that is not really a very wedding-ly kind of song, is it?"

"Not particularly, no..." Mina trailed off. "Well, I know carols, of course, but this is a bit early. And I know a lot of Disney songs..."

"That would work, actually" Rose marked the jar she had been holding with a blue dot. "Mom likes Disney, so..."

"We could pick some stuff that would kind of maybe fit, but we need it to be solos _and_ fitting thematically. Let's just..."

Mina was already scrolling through her phone.

"I can do 'A Dream Is A Wish Your Heart Makes', the first part of course, and that could kind of fit, I suppose. No, Pocahontas no... Also, Mum hates Pocahontas. 'Once Upon a Dream" is a duet..."

"Can you sing 'Can You Feel the Love Tonight'?" Rose leaned closer. "Because that would be just fine, I think."

"I'd have to practise a bit..." Mina scrolled the list further. "Snow White... well... That would apply Mom is waiting for her prince to come, and..."

"No, better not this" aunt Georgiana scrunched her nose.

"'Beauty and the Beast'?"

"Dad will have a fit."

"'Mother Knows Best'?"

"Rose!"

They fell silent for a moment, as Mina scrolled the long list of songs and Mrs Reynolds removed some of the checked jars to make more space on the table.

"Ah. I think I can do Merida's song. Nothing to do with a wedding, but sounds nice."

"Mhm" aunt Georgiana made a note of that and sighed. "A bit limited..."

"Well, nothing from Tangled... And no, not 'Love is an open door', definitely..."

"Ah. Maybe just 'Let It Go'?" aunt Georgiana suggested. "I mean, they were separated, and they both kind of isolated themselves from stuff..."

"Do you children actually watch _older_ Disney movies?" the housekeeper enquired suddenly. "Because I can see 'A Spoonful of Sugar' may fit here."

Mina bit her lip.

"I can do that one, too..."

"I know!" Rose suddenly piped up. "Have you ever watched 'Finian's Rainbow'?"

Aunt Georgiana whistled silently.

"'Look To The Rainbow'? That may work!"

Mina blinked slowly.

"Is it this? ' _Look, look, look to the rainbow, follow it over the hill and stream_ '?"

"Yes" aunt Georgiana smiled widely. "And we can skip the first verse, because that doesn't fit, but we can just start with the chorus and use the other two..."

"So, what _do_ we have?"

"'Can You Feel", 'Rainbow', 'A Dream' and 'Let it go'? And 'Touch the Sky'... I suppose that should be enough, because the whole ceremony is forty-five minutes."

"And you could play something from one of these musicals Mom likes" Mina clicked something on her phone. "This one. She loves this one. Can you get the score?"

The tinny speaker wasn't really up to the challenge, but the melody was clear.

 

_Herrgott, was ist denn heut los?_

_Herrgott, was hab ich denn blos?_

_Dass ich so selig bin,_

_dass ich so fr_ _öhlich bin,_

 

"This is 'Countess Mariza'?" aunt Georgiana frowned. "I have the score, actually, but I would need to work on this one... But, well" she smiled crookedly. "Anything for Lizzy."

"And maybe something from ABBA?" Rose suggested. "Mom is having an ABBA phase, Mina says, right now."

"Soo..." aunt Georgiana squinted at the screen. "What? Let's make it simple - 'I do, I do'? Sounds pretty obvious..."

"Can you play it, dearie?" Mrs Reynolds cut through the dithering.

"Well, yes. I do, actually."

"So I think the choice is made?"

Aunt Georgiana frowned at the notepad "I suppose so. Very well. we'll start today evening, checking first the key in which it will work for us. And now, ladies, are you done here?" she glanced up at Mrs Reynolds.

"They are. Just make sure you bundle up warm and you can go to town. Buy me some awful candy. Toffees or caramels."

 

#

 

The fair was focused mostly on masks, accessories and, in general, aimed at making people lose as much money as possible. Mina surveyed each booth carefully, looking for an appropriate tiara for Rose and for a fan for herself, while Rose and aunt Georgiana focused on the sweet treats part of the equation. The amount of booths presenting various games of chance was staggering and Mina skirted carefully around all of them, most certainly _not_ wishing to be seen as interested in some lottery or other.

 

#

 

"Sis, stop dawdling! Come on, there is a shooting range, they say you can win something!"

Mina grimaced, but followed Rose obediently through the crowd to where aunt Georgiana was waiting for them.

"Try not to get separated, please. Your parents will have my head if I manage to lose one of you in this crowd."

"We are not _babies_ , aunt G," Mina sighed. "I've been getting myself home from school for like _ages_ already, and I used to live in a big city."

"Do not disrespect little towns and their potential for trouble. You can get lost in Lambton quite easily, you should know."

Well, not that aunt G was _wrong_ , but Mina did have her phone in her pocket _and_ money enough for the bus fare. Still, she found it easier to just acquiesce to the request.

"What are we looking for?" she asked with resignation.

"The candy floss machine, first," Rose answered with a 'duh, obviously' eyeroll. "And then there is a shooting game with cans and targets."

Mina shrugged, a bit underwhelmed.

"And the prizes?"

"Plushies, but really, does it matter? Just winning something for once would be nice," Rose was... grumbling?

"What are you talking about?" Mina looked at her suspiciously.

"Last year Rose bought ten lottery tickets and the only thing she won was 'another ticket for free' on two of them. She is a bit cynical about lotteries ever since."

"I'd rather try my hand at a game of skill instead of a game of chance," Rose explained in quite a distinguished, snotty voice.

"There is only the little problem that you can't really _shoot_. I mean, I admit I haven't seen you with anything resembling a _gun_ , but I suppose if they had a bow and arrow competition and the condition was to hit the broad side of a barn, well, you would have like fifty-fifty chance... Auntie Georgiana! Tell her to stop hitting me!"

"Ladies" someone coughed just behind them and they disengaged immediately, putting Very Innocent Smiles onto their faces.

"Headmaster Farlane" Mina piped up first. "Ah, we were... Um."

"Sibling rivalry, I suppose" he cocked an eyebrow at them.

"Yeah" Rose confirmed a bit sheepishly. "I, um."

"In case you were wondering, there actually _is_ an archery contest, happening in" he glanced at his watch "twenty minutes. I will be heading that way soon, if you wish for company. Miss Darcy?" he smiled at Georgiana as she clasped the shoulders of both girls.

"Well, I was looking forward to it, actually. If you could look after these two for fifteen minutes..."

There was something new in aunt Georgiana's voice and Mina saw Rose frowning slightly.

 

#

 

Yeah, that was weird.

For one, the person managing the archery contest looked so much like Miss Yang that Mina had to look twice before noticing certain differences in stature - making her Susan Yang.

For another, aunt Georgiana looked suddenly _eager_ and unusually self-assured. Something they were used to seeing when she was sitting at the piano or talking about her research. Not when she was handling a potentially lethal weapon!

"Did you know she could shoot with a bow?" Mina hissed at Rose, who was watching it all with round eyes.

"No way in hell" was a simple, soft answer she received.

"Ah, well" the headmaster sounded amused. "Your aunt probably still has the trophies she won when she was at school. Ask her one day, hm? I remember her P.E. teacher going to our then-headmaster, complaining about 'little Darcy' being a complete incompetent in any kind of team sports but outshooting anyone, including the boys, on the archery field."

"What?" Mina looked up at the towering man.

"Why don't _we_ have an archery field?"

He snorted.

"Safety regulations. Can't have one between buildings these days. Anyway, she finally passed P.E. despite being unable to score anything in basketball or to even serve properly in volleyball. She did perfectly well in badminton, though. And she could run and jump... and, well, this."

Aunt Georgiana was putting on some kind of arm guard and a pair of fingerless gloves.

"...haven't done it in a long time" her voice reached them as she smiled at Susan. "I will have to check if I still can!"

"Just like riding a bike, Georgie" suddenly Susan Yang kind of... doubled?

"Lucy! I thought you were working today!"

"Last minute cancellation. With a fee, so I am free _and_ loaded this weekend. Now, show me some of these wicked archery skills you've been bragging about to Susan and then let me buy you a drink."

Rose looked away and Mina hid a smirk as aunt Georgiana shot them a look over her shoulder.

"I'm here with some of your students, Lucy" she warned.

"It can be hot chocolate, girl. Doesn't need to be mulled wine or anything... risky."

Mina felt her face warming up.

_Grownups flirting. Good thing Mom and Dad are keeping this part to themselves. I mean, I..._

Aunt Georgiana was now straightening and checking the bow - pinging the bowstring and looking along the length for... something. Whatever it was, she knew what she was doing, obviously.

"She used to shoot both a recurve bow and a longbow" the headmaster remarked lightly. "She was the tallest girl in her year, so she was the first to practise with a proper, full-sized longbow. She was the tallest _kid_ in her year, in fact. That really made some boys pretty annoyed at her."

"And this one is?" Mina asked finally. "Doesn't look very _long_."

"Just a simple bow, probably four feet long. Cheap as dirt, I suppose, in case someone damaged one during the competition. Now, look."

Yeah, aunt Georgiana definitely knew what she was doing. Her first arrow was maybe an inch off-centre, the second dead in the bullseye.

"Will you go all Merida on us, or should I take these two out?" Susan Yang asked as they stepped closer to see the target.

"Take it out, absolutely. No arrow-splitting today."

This was _not_ their aunt Georgiana. This was someone else.

They exchanged glances.

Someone who shoot bloody long arrows accurately. Someone who smiled, joked and - the moment Lucy Yang appeared - _flirted_.

_Wow._

Rose made a face and shrugged.

_Yeah. Same here._

"Aunt Georgiana..."

"In a moment, kitten" the icy blue Darcy eyes were narrowed in concentration.

Another perfect shot.

"Hm? Do you need anything?"

Mina slowly shook her head.

"If someone was breaking in to the house, could you shoot them, like, dead?" Rose piped up unexpectedly.

All the adults snorted with laughter and aunt Georgiana smiled widely.

"As long as they waited in one place long enough for me to go to the attic, dig up my old bow, string it, find the arrows, come back downstairs and shoot them. Absolutely, yes."

"And then only a warning shot, remember, Georgie" Lucy poked her arm. "Or it would be overdoing on self-defense. We are _not_ an uncivilised country, unlike some. Now, two last shots and then we can head for the hot chocolate stand."

The next two shots were obviously good. Not as perfect as the second and third one, but no more than an inch away from the centre, and that put aunt Georgiana on top of the list of archers, with a "3" next to her name. "We count how off-centre someone shot, so it's easy to compare, the best ones should be in single digits. For now it's only Georgiana, everyone else is eleven or more" Susan Yang explained. "Now, go, let others try. Although after that performance, I won't be counting on _many_ people trying... Georgie's results are a bit depressing to a normal human being!"

 

#

 

The hot chocolate was _good_. Creamy, heavy, with a hint of ginger and chilli, a blob of whipped cream on top and some cake sprinkles on top of _that_.

They parted with the headmaster there and headed for other games. Rose quickly developed a white spot of cream at the tip of her nose and aunt Georgiana developed a severe case of lack of attention as Lucy Yang joined them on the slow amble across the great fair ground, which allowed Mina to slow down and watch some more competitions along the way - someone hitting a button with a huge hammer and boys with long sticks fishing items out of a huge tub (all wet up to their elbows).

"Look, the shooting booth" Rose prodded her forward. "I _have_ to at least try, right? How complicated can that be?"

Turned out to be pretty complicated. Rose paid for her six attempts and managed to miss all the targets completely, which made her less than happy with herself and the world in general. Fortunately (as Mina had been readying herself for a quick grab and pull, if her older sister decided to blow the rest of her allowance on repeated attempts) she managed to control her annoyance and stepped back from the counter.

"Must be fixed somehow, I was aiming perfectly" she mumbled.

"Ah. Maybe I could make an attempt? Good evening, Miss Yang, Miss Darcy. Rose. Mina."

Teddy's voice sounded completely innocent as he passed his payment to the booth operator. Having received the loaded gun, he turned to them with a shy smile.

"What would be your prize?" he asked, stepping closer to Mina. "I won't promise I _can_ get it, but I will definitely try."

"Ah..." she looked up at the rafters of the booth to survey the offered items. "Promise you won't laugh?"

His mouth wobbled, but finally he nodded.

"Sven," she pointed out a plush reindeer at the back.

"Hmm... a reindeer?" he scrunched his nose. "Reindeers are better than people..."

"You..."

He shrugged, winked and turned towards the targets, a set of differently-sized cans and little round black signs stuck in swiveling bases.

"What do I have to shoot to get the reindeer?" he asked the bored cashier.

"Five out of six, of anything," the curly-headed, pimply teen answered.

"OK. Wish me luck, Wilhelmina."

"Break a leg, _Theodore_."

She did notice Rose making a derisive sound next to her, but focused fully on her whatever-he-was.

Teddy casually leaned towards the counter, set the gun on a provided rest and aimed for a moment.

Six not-very-quick and measured bangs later the cashier was forced to hand the plush Sven over with a grudging face.

Teddy was _not_ preening at all. Not a lot anyway.

"I could show you how to do this, I suppose," he offered lightly, glancing - with worry? - at aunt Georgiana. Who smiled and nodded.

 

#

 

And this was how Mina found herself at the counter of the shooting booth, her stance being corrected by Teddy and instructions being imparted with a nervous "ah" from time to time when he caught aunt Georgiana's amused glance.

"Now, calm and slow," he directed. "Align this and this," he pointed out the pieces of the flimsy-looking weapon "with the thing you want to hit. Try the big can on the left. Slow and steady. Pull the trigger, it does stick a bit..."

BANG.

The can toppled to the side.

Mina found herself shaking just slightly.

"Ah," she managed to utter. "And now?"

"The blue plaque next to it. Carefully, but don't hesitate."

BANG.

The plaque wobbled and tilted obediently.

 

#

 

The cashier was watching them with distaste as Mina collected her prize (3 targets down, third-tier plushie) - not the same size as the reindeer bagged by Teddy, but the flat blue and silver plush pillow embroidered with a pattern of snowflakes was still nice.

Rose took a long, audible breath.

"Strickland," she coughed and cleared her throat. "I understand that you may not be... ah, willing, but do you suppose I..."

The sentence failed to finish, but Mina caught her sister's meaning.

"To translate from Rose to English - would you show my sister how to do this, too?"

Teddy rolled his eyes good-naturedly and helped Rose to take her place in front of the new set of targets.

 

#

 

The cashier was most unhappy with them. Especially since Rose managed to knock down _four_ cans and earn herself the right to choose a second-tier prize. He was eyeing Teddy with something very far from the passivity he displayed when they started. If someone asked Mina, it was closer to seething hate, but they had won their toys fair and square _and_ had grownups for witnesses, so he couldn't raise any kind of fuss.

"They will be making an announcement about the carol competition from the main scene in a moment," Miss Yang pointed in the right direction. "Shall we?"

Mina's eyes met Teddy's focused gaze.

"I think so. _Theodore_?"

"Oh, absolutely. I want to compete on equal footing this time, so don't go around catching any colds, _Wilhelmina_."

"And on that note, a cup of tea for everyone" aunt Georgiana brandished a carrier with five paper cups like a prize of her own. "Yes, Teddy, you too. No coughs for you either. It's with lemon, honey and raspberry syrup, so drink up. All of you," she poked Rose in the shoulder. "And let's go hear the announcement."

 

#

 

The main stage was surrounded by people, five persons deep, but with Teddy's smile and effective technique of shouldering his way through, they soon found themselves right at the barrier, watching the mayor of Lambton as he fumbled with his notepad. Finally some assistant (looking barely older than Teddy) brought what was apparently the needed page and pointed to something on it.

"Ah, thank you, Norbert. Yes, hello, everyone. I hope you are having fun..."

A chorus of "yeah's" answered, so he smiled dutifully.

"Our very musically-oriented event activists asked me to announce the new initiative for this year town Christmas celebration. Everyone is invited to participate, but there are certain conditions.

Now, to make the whole proceedings a bit more bearable to the audience than last year, we ask the participants to adhere to these rules. They have to prepare a carol or a winter-holiday-themed song, which is obviously the main point. The second is, keep the performance down to no more than _two_ verses. We know that there are many lovely traditional carols that have multiple verses and can take long minutes to complete. You can pick one of these, but you have to cut the content down to two verses and no more than three chorus repetitions. And the last one, that will make it a bit of a challenge, but will maybe infuse the contest with a bit of excitement... Everyone has to pick a _different_ song. There will be a list of titles kept and so the later you sign up for it, the higher the chance that most popular ones will be taken. To make it a bit easier on everyone the list will be kept separately for each age group and the youngest ones will not have to actually adhere to that particular rule."

He checked the page again and turned it in his hands, squinting against the lights.

"Ah. Age groups. So, first, the under-sevens, second group is seven to twelve, then twelve to sixteen, sixteen to nineteen... and then an open competition for all grownups. The general rule to avoid overcrowding the event - you can sing a capella or with one instrument of accompaniment. You can play for yourself or have someone join you, but no more than two persons apiece. So no family von Trapp groups, please.

The entries can be submitted for the whole duration of the Christmas marker, starting second of December, eleven o'clock in the morning."

Mina bit the inside of her cheek and took a long look at Teddy. Teddy, however, was studiously looking at his phone.

"Soo..." she started softly. "Same place, second of December, ten past eleven?"

His eyes narrowed and he bit his lower lip, glancing at her.

"I'd say it's a date, but I'm not going to risk my internet privileges."

"Oh, so access to the social media is more important than..."

"Than phrasing it in an incorrect fashion" he frowned, but brightened the moment she smiled. "Ah. A little tease, are you?"

"Well, she can't be a _big_ tease" Rose mumbled. "She is too short for this."

"Seriously, as if you were any taller" Mina elbowed her in the ribs. "By the way, did you say 'thank you' to the nice boy, you savage? Without his help you wouldn't have had a chance to get your snowman."

"Thank you, _Strickland._ "

"Don't mention it. _Darcy_."

"You two are quite serious about continuing like this?" Mina found herself querying them plaintively.

"Absolutely" Teddy assured her, Rose followed him with barely a fraction of a second of delay.

She could only roll her eyes and clasp his hand more tightly in hers.

 

#

 

They parted an hour or so later, when aunt Georgiana ordered them to the car, so Mina had to leave him there, but not before she stole a kiss (carefully timing it to the exact moment when aunt G and miss Yang were saying _their_ goodbyes) and pressed the snowflake pillow into his mittened hands with a quiet "in exchange for my lesson".

 

#

 

*ping*

 

From: Teddy

28-10-2017 22:12

Goodnight, Starlight. xx

 

To: Teddy

28-10-2017 22:15

Goodnight, Teddy. :*

 

"Seriously, put this phone away or I'll hurt you" Rose groused from her bed. "And wipe that silly grin from your face!"

She just rolled her eyes and plugged the phone in.

"Hug your Olaf, sister, and go to sleep" she advised sweetly.

"Hmpf" was the only comment she received from Rose.

Because a soft, plush Olaf was, in fact, tucked away by her pillow.

 

####

 

"Aren't you... I don't know, disturbed?"

She shrugged.

"I managed to shoot myself a plushie or two at some fairs myself. I won't forbid them from trying. At least they managed to skip all the stupider stuff, like all the totally-random-but-absolutely-fixed games of chance. I wasn't that smart at their age. Blew my entire monthly allowance one year on some dice rolling thing, because I was so sure I could roll two sixes. Dad explained to me later what the probability means and how statistics works... and also how people who run these things weight down their dice. It was a rather painful lesson that turned out to have real-life applications later on. Anyway... No worries. I think they had an example of what can happen if someone idolises the gun as the idea with that idiot, Davison. As for Teddy... I find I'm not very worried about it, if he was the one who gave them a practical lesson then and there. Which was nice of him, I think. Especially including Rose."

"I could ask Richard to give them some more detailed instructions, if they wanted. Not that I'm a gun-toting survivalist, like some, but if they were interested, why not? At least it would be a proper military training and not some Wild West craziness."

Her face was pressed into his arm, rubbing her forehead on his shoulder.

"Well, only if they express more than a passing interest in it. I don't want to force it on them. They have enough to do, what with the wedding and then the carol competition and then preparing the house for Christmas... And my family _probably_ descending on us at some point, you know. Not to mention school. I don't want them to lose valuable 'together' time to some activity they are not going to enjoy."

"Absolutely agree" he inhaled the scent of her hair. "I will call him tomorrow anyway, so I can ask for the lessons, just as a preparation if they do decide they want to do it."

"I wish..." she paused and shook her head. "I wish I had some idea what to do that would involve _both_ of them equally. Twins, not clones, yes. But it seems I automatically gravitate towards doing things with Mina, just like we used to, and you do more with Rose, like things around the stables, because that's what _you_ two do."

He moved behind her and pulled her closer.

"I will think about it" he promised. "I mean, we can definitely get them involved in planning of the new house. Mina had some input already, but now we all have to add our parts, or someone will be left unhappy. And I want this to be the exact house we _want_ to have, instead of just a house we have to live in due to lack of choices."

"Ah. Indeed. Well, they _did_ mention they were planning to ask you for a sauna room..." she stretched a bit and relaxed again, melding herself closer to his body. "And I can kind of see how nice it would be to have one..."

"My little hedonist."

"Well, you are trying to spoil me rotten. I dare say I should go outside and do some gardening just to remind myself that hard work still exists" she felt him grow still, his hands tight around her waist. "Or wash some windows, you know. Or maybe scrub some old dusty pans... Just to get in touch with reality."

"No way" he mumbled into the back of her neck. "You are not going anywhere, no heavy lifting, no... no dirty farm work, no scrubbing any pans. You are a lovely, creative and intellectual person and I thing we have enough money to pay for someone else to do the dirty stuff for us."

"You _are_ going to be absolutely overblown and protective about me doing anything more strenuous than picking up a piece of fabric, right? And I'm not even..."

His warm huff of breath landed exactly in the right spot to make her shiver a bit.

"Yes. Absolutely. But now I'd much rather end this discussion and show you what kind of physical activity I hope to focus on in the coming days."

She rolled her eyes and groaned in embarrassment.

"We have to work on your pun skills, Mr Darcy."

 

#

 

Sunday morning was unreasonably warm. Elizabeth checked the thermometer twice before leaving the house, but it seemed to be telling the truth. Almost end of October and it was still rather nice outside. Her slacks and light jacket were quite sufficient for a walk. Thin sunlight coming through the clouds was not harsh enough to cause much pain, but she put on her glasses anyway, just as a preventative measure.

Two weeks. In two weeks she would be married, she would be Mrs Darcy, she would be... She would be, in a way, leaving Elizabeth Bennet behind.

On one hand, it sounded freaky. Like some kind of embezzlement scheme, stolen identity or maybe a con job.

On the other... She didn't really find being a Bennet all that funny. Jane had changed her name after marriage, despite all the diplomas she had collected with her maiden name. Kitty did the same. Mary didn't, only because changing one's name legally without getting married seemed too much of a hassle. Fortunately for her, she never moved, academically, in the same society as their father did, so she was free of the association with him. Also, he barely acknowledged her work anyway, so why should she bother.

 _Why does a woman always have to belong to someone?_ she thought rebelliously. _I discard 'Bennet' because that is the connection to dad that I want to lose, but I have to accept something else, in this case 'Darcy', because I go from my father to my husband. It is most thoroughly vexing!_

Of course she wanted to be a Darcy, but sometimes, just sometimes, she wished she could take an artistic pseudonym and stick with it in her daily life.

One thing for sure - whatever she did, her parents would have no say in her life anymore. They already didn't, but sometimes they seemed to ignore the fact that she was a legal adult with a kid (two kids!) and a degree and reasonable career.

Yeah. Elizabeth Darcy.

"Elizabeth Darcy" she tried it out, softly. "Elizabeth Bennet-Darcy? No. Elizabeth Darcy, definitely. Lizzy Darcy. Lizbeth Darcy. No, Lizbeth is just Lizbeth..."

An animal burrowing in the hedgerow and shaking the bushes drew her attention away from her musings and she smiled to herself.

"Elizabeth Darcy. Yep. That sounds quite right."


	25. We'll build the fire high - p2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A cosplay contest.  
> And a confrontation.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think there are some people for whom this chapter will be satisfactory ;)

She didn't even manage to make herself a cup of coffee before the girls found her in the dining room, both smiling beatifically. They looked so innocent and calm that it immediately put her on her guard. Still, they continued to behave like absolute proper angels all throughout the breakfast and the subsequent cleanup of the table. They even agreed to help Mrs Reynolds with peeling of the apples gathered by the grounds crew that morning, as the fruit collected was more than the normal storage could hold.

"I am thinking about asking the cleaning crew to call in reinforcements."

Mrs Reynolds frowned a bit but nodded.

"First, the wedding preparations. we'll need help with cleaning and setting up the rooms. Obviously. Second, there are a lot of fall apples to be collected still, and I wouldn't want us to lose all the ones that are supposed to be collected in November. And _then_ we will have a storage problem, so if the team could come for two days, and the second day they would spend on helping us to prepare the apples for preserves..."

She saw the housekeeper smile.

"And we still have pears. And even some grapes, just picked, almost frozen during one of the cold snaps. At least blackberries and all the currants were simply eaten, bar a few pounds I managed to get picked. Yes, Mina, I _am_ looking at you. And we have this big freezer in the basement, where I put all the gooseberry we collected. And we have raspberries, the last late batch just picked by Brian and Joseph yesterday. No idea how they have kept for that long, but the weather is probably confusing the plants!"

"And there are still rosehips on the bushes, if I'm not mistaken" Elizabeth rubbed her eyes tiredly. "I suppose some of the students may grouse, but it will be a long, sit-down and warm job. We can offer them lunch and tea, too. This may make them more than happy, if I remember from my time at the college."

"Maybe the hardiest ones may go out and collect sloes, too" the older woman mused. "I mean, we almost never did, but if we organise it all correctly, we may actually have enough hands to do even that."

"At least the jars we were checking yesterday will be of use" Mina sighed from her corner. "But are they enough? I mean, I remember we always used to run out of jars when we did that back in London..."

"Well, we can send your father shopping on Saturday, if it seems we have more preserves than containers. And we should..." Elizabeth frowned. "No. Different plan. Yes, I ask them to bring in as many people as they can, but we put the tallest, strongest etc etc ones on the collection detail. The ones who don't feel up to it, clean the house. The ones who would prefer to come downstairs immediately, help with the fruit. This way, when the collected fruit comes in, we will have already freed part of the storage and put the jars to use. Then we see how big the next batch is and we can make a rational estimation of jars needed... Of course, we can store the fruit that keeps well, but most of them we have to process as soon as possible."

She stood for a moment in the middle of the kitchen, trying to gather her thoughts, but gave up after a few breaths, as the niggling sensation of unease reminded her of the untypical behaviour of her daughters. She glanced up at them, sitting all innocent at the table and intently peeling and coring their apples as if they were taking part in some fruit peeling Olympics.

"Actually, what was it that you wanted, young ladies?" she asked calmly. "Or is there something that had happened yesterday that I still don't know about and _should_?"

Mina glanced at Rose.

"There is a little thing today at the fair, after four" she said finally, picking another apple. "And we kind of wanted to go and take part but aunt Georgiana is kind of busy and we maybe thought..."

"We need someone to drive us to town. And we'd need to wear our dresses" Rose blurted out. "It's a cosplay contest. There are actual real prizes. I mean, it's only gift cards to the fabric store and to the hobby shop, but...!"

"A cosplay contest, a proper one? Like at the Comic-con?" she considered that for a moment. "I suppose there will be the usual amount of fairy queens and pirates..."

"And pirate queens and pirate fairies" Mrs Reynolds added in an undertone. "And any mix thereof. Last year half of them were dressed as Zorro for some reason."

"There was a clearance on black cotton in October. The lady from the fabric store is probably making a killing on this one," Rose informed them from over her bowl.

"Will you help us, pleeease, Mom?" Mina looked at her beseechingly. "I mean, if we win anything, the prize is anyway for you, because you made them, so..."

"And none of us really, like, needs a gift card to a fabric store," Rose added.

"Oh, speak for yourself" Mina straightened. "I could like totally use a craft store one, too. But if our costumes win, it's Mom who wins, not us, anyway. So," she looked up at Elizabeth. "Will you go with us? We'd need a guardian's signature anyway, I suppose."

She nodded slowly.

"But first, this. And I'll bring my laptop here and we'll make a proper plan for the next weekend. Or, I don't know. Maybe they can come in every day during the week...?" she frowned. "Well, not this week, probably. But maybe next? We'll need all the help we can get..."

She started making the plan in her head as she walked out of the kitchen. They would have to be very, very precise.

 

#

 

William was in his study, trying to work out yet another grant proposal and switching between the printed report and the spreadsheet slightly chaotically.

"I really hope it's just sloppiness" he said without preamble, when she came in, not raising his head from the large screen. "Because I feel like I'm spending half of my time just checking if they can count to ten!"

"Can you take a break? I'd need your opinion on something, and once we're done and I get back from town, I can help you with these. We'll be done sooner if we cooperate, I'm sure."

His glasses were already off and he was rising, more than willing to leave the calculations behind.

She decided to present the problem plainly.

"Can we afford to hire the cleaning crew for the whole week?"

"Shouldn't be a problem. Why?"

"We'll need them to help on the grounds, in the house and in the kitchen and cellars. Too much fruit. The girls are helping and me and Georgie are pitching in, I know you are roped into carrying the cases, too, but we won't manage and half of the haul will start to rot. I see several options, where the simplest one is buying another big freezer, it's not good enough in the long run. So I think we should hire whoever wants to come and help peel, core, wash and cook, with Mrs Reynolds. And a group to help in the orchards, or we will start losing whatever is still on the trees, and that's a huge amount of Idared. And you know..."

"You love Idared, yes. And we also have Jonagold and Jonathan and _I_ love your apple pie. So, we need more hands on deck? Let me make a call to Derek, give him time to organise a big crew. He has everyone's contacts, so if we ask him for a team available daily from tomorrow until the end of the fruit harvest, I'm sure he can give us people."

"But, Will" she bit her lip. "Can we afford it? I mean, this will not bring any kind of revenue to the estate, so..."

"Better pay now and have apples enough for three years than have rotting apples and have to pay for them to be cleaned. No matter which way we do it, it's some cost and one of these is less wasteful. What do you think we need? How many people?"

"One group to collect in the orchard. One group to sit in the kitchen and prepare fruit - whatever Mrs Reynolds tells them to do, from washing the jars to cooking the fruit. One group to clean the house thoroughly, top to bottom, to make sure everything is ready for our guests... this time we have to avoid that room with a bad window..." she frowned. "Wasn't Brian supposed to fix it?"

"He is having a man come in to do it soon. Something about the specific type of wood needed. He secured the whole thing for now, so there is no risk of the room getting flooded or dirty, but we'll ask the crew to clean it too, just to avoid letting it accrue... Well, I will talk to Derek. Anything more?"

"Probably a few persons to reorder items in the cellars, just to make the storage easier."

He nodded and drew her closer, humming quietly.

"We have to think about next year, too" he murmured. "We will be busy with the new house, with the move, with all the official things to do... and the harvest will happen anyway. I think we will have a very busy winter setting it all up..."

There was some kind of tiredness in his voice she didn't like at all.

"But, William" she turned to look up at him. "Next year we will do _all_ of this together. And, I hope you won't get scared, but I have _ideas_."

"Oooh, ideas? What kind of ideas?"

She shrugged.

"With this amount of apples? I'd say a juice press and some setup to produce homemade cider. Well, and perry. We'd have to apply for a licence to sell and everything, but it's a shame to just let all of this, well, rot."

"Mmm... And am I guessing correctly that you had looked up the regulations already?" she heard a shade of laughter in his voice.

"I... might have?"

She had, in fact, checked all the resources she could find, and setting up a juice press and trying to produce their own cider - or just plain juice - seemed most sensible with the volume of fruit produced by the orchards.

"We could even have a bag-in-a-box setup, I saw a page that explains how to..."

William's mouth descended on hers and silenced her.

"Yes. Absolutely. You write the proposal and I will have the lawyer look at the needed permits. The estate is already licensed to sell produce, just in case. Not that we've ever used it, but I thought... Anyway, after this year harvest, you will have preliminary volumes of fruit and we will know what kind of manpower is needed to collect them. We can measure the number of hours it will take them to harvest, clean and prepare - I suppose processing for the apple mash is similar to one for the juice, so it can give you some averages..." he chewed on his lip for a moment. "Could you set up a calculation - spreadsheet or whatever - of the time they spend on all this? Not that I don't trust Derek to give us an honest invoice for this, but if we want to plan properly for the next year..."

Elizabeth blinked.

"You mean..." she stuttered and gestured helplessly.

"I mean, you see the costs and time constraints this year, Brian can give you numbers from spring and summer, including the additional crew costs and so on. Put this all together, assume next year will have similar yield... what?"

"You want me to put together a business plan?" she finally found her voice.

"Yeees? You have the idea, you did some primary research... Give me the numbers and we'll see where it fits in the rest of the changes I was planning for the estate. Actually, it may fit quite nicely, if only we plan it... carefully... No, first you do the numbers. Count every kind of cost you can find, talk to Mrs Reynolds and Brian, find in detail what is being done now. And then make a calculation. Then we can talk."

She shook her head and run her hand through her hair.

"William, but this may be, I mean, I'm not sure..."

"Hard numbers, Liz. Take into account that we do already have a licence to sell, but only fresh produce, not processed foods. And we don't have a sterile setup for anything, so we'd have to invest in all the equipment. Find the prices and conditions, hm?"

"OK" she relented. "You call Derek and ask him for as many people as he can find them. Cleaning, gardens, the grounds, kitchen, everything. Maybe there are some kids who would not want to go out and collect apples but are willing to sit in the kitchen in warmth and peel several kilos of whatever the others bring in. We can pay by the hour or by the volume or whatever."

William's low murmur of "I think I love you even more every day" warmed her up on her way to the kitchen, where her daughters were now sitting at the table and eating lunch.

"Very well. Cosplay contest, right? What can we do to blow their little minds completely? Do you want to go full princess, or something more... understated?"

 

 

#

 

The fair was loud, crowded and fun. For about fifteen minutes or so. Then it was only loud and crowded.

In the next half hour multiple attempts had been made to convince Lizzy (or the girls) to participate in one game or another, a very unskilled pickpocket had been hauled away by the fairgrounds guard, someone tried to sell Mina a puppy (one that looked like something that may grow up to be a polar bear) and they passed by a stand selling vuvuzelas. The seller looked ready to murder one of his underage customers, three of which were right at that moment testing the variety of sounds produced by said hellish implement.

They pushed through the throngs of people towards the main stage, where in twenty minutes or so the costume contest was supposed to begin. A slightly frazzled young woman managing the contest submissions only asked "one entry or two?" and accepted their forms with a slight wince when one of the smaller children started crying for their mother to get them a Sven like Mina was holding.

She managed to get the girls dressed for the weather and at the same time quite smartly in their princess gowns (with thick tights underneath). Rose sported a blonde wig plaited into one long braid, a plastic (yet appropriately sparkly) tiara and a cloak made last-minute of white tulle sprayed with silver paint and she was holding her prize Olaf. Mina with her 'coronation' Anna dress didn't really have a good matching coat or jacket, so they only added her a very carroty wig and a pendant on a black ribbon. And, of course, she was holding her Sven.

 

_"We are not obsessed with soft animals, Mom" Rose explained when they were leaving the house. "We are bringing them ironically, you know."_

_"Speak for yourself" came from Mina's side. "I am bringing Sven because he completes my costume."_

_The silence from the backseat implied an impressive eyeroll._

_"If you do it again, I will hit you and your eyes will stay stuck like this," Mina threatened in an undertone._

_"Mom!"_

_"Don't roll your eyes at your sister and you should be safe, Rosie. Now, be quiet, I have to park somewhere..."_

 

And now they were standing by the main scene, in a heated tent, waiting to be called on stage to be seen and judged. Everyone who approached the scene was given a voting paper which was to be filled in with the number of contestant chosen and dropped at the side of the stage in the voting booth.

 

It was unfortunately rather obvious that the winning proposition was going to be neither of her daughters, but a slightly older girl in a white wig (Lizzy dearly hoped it was a wig and not a dye job) and something akin to an elven fighting garb which she had accessorised with a large sword in a cross-back scabbard. Still, "Frozen" took the rest of the podium, as Mina and Rose got the exact same number of votes and were awarded two "second place" gift cards (which they promptly deposited in her purse) and a coupon for a lollipop-making workshop, one each, which they immediately wished to make use of. She walked with them to the car, where they changed into their normal street clothes and soon they were at the candy manufacture stand, offering their coupons to the young man managing the till.

"It will be about twenty minutes before the next session" he informed them tiredly. "It's so hot in here due to the heated plates that our main specialist needs to get some air between sessions. But you can sit there and, as a participant, you are entitled to a sample cone of our lemon and ginger caramels, so I will bring you some in a moment. And some tea, if you wish."

They wished. The caramels were nice and slightly spicy, the tea was quite tolerable. The tent smelled of sugar and it was, in fact, a bit warm, which made Lizzy slightly sleepy.

That might have been why she didn't notice immediately when William's aunt appeared in front of her with a scowl.

It did seem, in fact, like a proper nightmare, didn't it?

Rose and Mina reacted, however, rather lively, crowding closer to her in silence.

"So, this is what I am to expect?" said the apparition. "Lack of respect from people of your station? I know you fashion yourself 'Mrs Darcy' already, but let me be clear on that point - you are not, and never will be, even half the woman my sister was! You will never be Mrs Darcy in _spirit_ , and if I have anything to say in that matter, neither will it be in a name!"

A small hit of adrenaline in her veins made Elizabeth straighten stiffly.

"I would assume the only two people who have anything to say on the topic are me and William, so I don't see really where your involvement may come into the whole..."

"Be quiet, girl!"

Unfortunately, they were still sitting (with girls weighing her down) and the older woman was standing, so even her unimpressive height gave her certain advantage over Elizabeth. And that she used to the fullest, crowding them in, blocking their view of the front of the tent.

"Now you listen to me, you little slut. You will leave this town, leave this county and I will not damage you. You try to stay and I will make sure _everyone_ knows what kind of example you provide for the community! I will tell everyone how you seduced poor William with your silly smiles and simpering compliments!"

"Are you serious? You are trying to run me out of Derbyshire? For what? Do you think that with me not here, William will... what, marry Anne?"

"He will do his duty to her! He was supposed to marry her when we arrived here and instead he twisted all the agreements with my husband and claimed he is not under any obligation to her, except to support us temporarily! But I will prevail!"

"Seriously, though" the attendant stepped closer. "You are scaring the kids, lady. Please leave or I will call the fairground guard and they will escort you outside."

"Be quiet, you stupid boy! I will do what I want, and right now I want you, all three of you, gone. Away. Leave. Never ever again show yourselves anywhere near Pemberley!"

"Considering I have absolutely no wish to leave, I think you can see your demand as rejected."

Lizzy raised her head, trying to keep her voice steady despite the trembling that was threatening to overwhelm her. She would not cry. She would not break down in tears in front of that ugly, nasty old woman and in front of her daughters. She would not give in to that idiotic reaction her body liked to produce when she was stressed.

She felt Mina stir out of her petrified stillness and stand up.

"Go away, aunt Catherine" said her younger daughter steadily. "You are a bully and a bad, bad person. And stop screaming at Mom. She didn't do anything to you. The only person who did anything wrong was _you_ , always you. You destroyed all the things Mom sent for Rose, but we win anyway, because now Rose and I _share_ all of my presents, so we have them _together_. And you have _nothing_. And you are too stupid to make anything, you can only spoil and damage and steal."

The old woman's face changed, twisting with anger, as she turned to her grand-niece.

"You are the... the _changeling_. You spoilt everything. You told them about the stupid, stupid handmade! I did what I had to, to preserve the family! William didn't need to... William was supposed to be protected from that rot that your _mother_ was sending to him! Yes, I got rid of these packages. _Happily_. And I would do it again and again, as many times as needed, if it ensured that you and your slut of a mother stay the hell away from this town!"

There was spittle flying and Elizabeth wiped off her cheek with disgust. A second later an old, bony hand hit her in the face with such impact that her head snapped to the side.

She heard her daughters crying out loud and felt Rose standing up, joining Mina, but was still trying to gather her wits when someone joined them in the (suspiciously otherwise empty) candy tent.

"And that would be my clue to tell you, ma'am, that you are being placed under arrest. I am sergeant Hanners, from the local constabulary, and you have been reported for fomenting public unrest. Also, by your own admission, you are guilty of mail theft and damage of property. You have also physically attacked Miss Bennet here, who will certainly wish to testify."

"Ah-absolutely" Elizabeth probed her cheek. "Ouch. Yes, thank you, sergeant. Can you _please_ take her away? I am sure that this nice man would like to get the tent back in use... So sorry," she smiled at the candy shop attendant. "She just..."

"No worries," the man smiled. "Crazy old ladies, every family has one. Now, do you three want to take part in that workshop today, or maybe you'd rather come back tomorrow? We are here until next Sunday, so no hurry..."

"I..."

"Let's go home," Mina said suddenly. "We can come back tomorrow evening, just after school? By ourselves? Or we could wait for one of you and come back here?" she turned to Elizabeth, watching her with pursed lips.

"Can they come without an adult, after school?" she felt as if her brain was stuffed with lead wool, her thoughts were moving so sluggishly and hesitantly.

"Not a problem, ma'am. Girls, I suppose you should go with your mum to the first aid tent, they certainly have cold compresses, hm?"

Elizabeth nodded slowly, rising.

"Thank you. I'm so sorry, again..."

"Nah. Just get this seen to and let your daughters come back tomorrow."

 

#

 

The bruise was blooming, even despite the fact that the nurse in the first aid tent tended to it and put a coldpack on it to stop it from developing. Elizabeth wished she could just curl up in bed and avoid seeing any people at all until the wedding at least.

William was understandably furious and he made his opinion known as he marched from the parking lot to where she and Mina were sitting (one ibuprofen, a cup of tea and a change of cold compress later). The way he engulfed her in his arms made it feel like coming back home.

"I brought Brian with me, he will drive your car back to the estate and I will take the three of you in mine. Do you need anything else? Want to see a doctor? Any dizziness? A headache?"

"It was just a nasty slap, Will. She surprised me, that's all. I... I didn't pay attention and didn't duck."

"Oh, love..." he held her closer. "You... It's _not_ your fault! I mean... it's all her - although you may be the first person with whom she got physical. I never ever saw her raise a hand at someone, even Anne. She would shout and berate and get all red in the face, but she never hit anyone."

"Well then, it seems she lost it in just the right moment" she smiled feebly. "Sergeant Hanners had been stuck in the crowd in front of the tent, and so listened to her shout about burning your, well, mine, letters. Which is now going on record as an admission of guilt heard by a number of independent witnesses and two police officers."

"Oooh..." Mina perked up, her eyes bright. "Does this mean they can put her in jail, like for twenty years?"

"I'd say fifty" Rose mumbled from over her tea. "Stupid aunt Catherine."

"Well, she may get five for the letters, if they don't decide she is too old to survive the prison" William corrected in a pained tone. "And she will get some for assaulting your mother, too. Do we need to talk to Hanners today, love?"

"She said they would swing by the house sometime in the evening to ask us for details. She heard a lot of what aunt Catherine said, because she was stuck just outside and the argument was rather loud but she still needs us to tell her how it all started."

William's phone buzzed and he looked at the screen with consternation.

"Georgie? I'm just at the fair, picking up Lizzy and the girls... She _what_? Oh my... Can you keep her contained? Is Thomas there? Oh _shit_. We'll be there in fifteen minutes."

She watched him in slight surprise.

William _never_ swore. He did sometimes make his language more colourful by usage of country-style vituperations, but he never cursed like that.

"Come on. We need to go to the sixth and ask the sergeant to accompany us. We have an unexpected visitor at home" he rubbed his eyes. "I mean, _very_ unexpected. And she entered without anyone noticing, which does give me some thoughts about some security measures we should put in place. Anyway, Georgiana has managed to disable her and Thomas is now holding her in the old storage cupboard but... Really, what was she thinking?"

"Dad...?"

"Your aunt Anne decided to visit her old room. Wonder _what_ she was looking for."

 

####

 

"Your aunt decided to be difficult, Mr Darcy" was the first thing they heard from sergeant Hanners as they entered the station. Indeed, Mina could hear aunt Catherine's raised voice from somewhere in the bowels of one of the offices. "She claims I have used undue force during her arrest and so demanded a doctor to be brought in to tend to her wounds. Which is fortuitous, because we can have the same doctor examine Miss Bennet's bruise so that we can properly document it."

"That would be... good. If I could however trouble you for assistance in a small matter of a burglary, that would be even better."

Mina smiled as the police officer's lips made a silent 'o'.

"A burglary, Mr Darcy?"

"A burglary, sergeant. If you could have someone go to our house and relieve my staff of their prisoner..."

"Oh, so you have an actual burglar?" she frowned. "How did... I mean, it's the middle of the day!"

"My cousin Anne was never known for her particular... brightness."

"Cous... oh. I see."

"Indeed. Now, please dispatch someone to Pemberley, if you could, and have the doctor check Elizabeth's cheek, then we will go home and make ourselves available for whoever needs our testimony later today? Lizzy is..."

"Not feeling very well" Mom interjected. "I'd really love to lie down and take another painkiller."

Mina sat closer to her, melding her whole length into her side. Rose followed in a second.

The doctor appeared quickly, looking slightly annoyed, mumbling something under his breath - Mina was almost sure the words she heard were not ones her parents would have wished her to learn - but one look at Mom's face made him focus.

"Ah, Mrs...?"

"Elizabeth Bennet" Mom provided calmly. "I'd really like to go home, but sergeant Hanners needs this documented, so if we could _please_ just..."

"Absolutely, absolutely. Can you tell me what happened here?"

"Aunt Catherine hit her" Rose informed the doctor sharply. "The one that is making all these noises back there."

"We were arguing and she slapped me. Didn't manage to move away in time. The nurse at the first aid tent helped me to put some ice on it, but..."

The doctor was pulling on his pink gloves and in a second his fingers mapped the extent of the bruising.

"I will need to make a photo" he shook his head. "For the police records. Please, turn to the light."

Soon they were leaving the station, hurrying to Dad's big car, where Mom sank into the passenger seat with a small sigh and the two of them sprawled on the backseat in silence.

A soft beep of Dad's phone made them all look up.

"Brian is already home and they are waiting for us. It seems Anne is kicking up a fuss and the constables are asking for the property owners."

"I wonder what she wants _now"_ Mom murmured. "Because, really, I need some quiet."

"Let's get rid of her and I'll make sure you get some."

 


	26. We'll build the fire high - p3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some more family conflict and a dance.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A quick new chapter or you, darlings :)
> 
> (seriously, this became my NaNoWriMo project now)

At home the situation seemed to be under control - more or less. That meant everything was in perfect order, except for Anne, who was contained to one room, and the rather desperate police officer sent by Hanners who was trying to convince her to come along quietly. In fact, Anne was screaming bloody murder and judging by the look on his face, Will was quickly developing a migraine to match Lizzy's own.

She breathed in, held the air and let it out slowly.

"Girls, down to the kitchen, please. Sit with Mrs Reynolds until we've dealt with Anne. I don't want you witnessing this, whatever it is going to be. Go, have supper. I don't want to see you back here until the police leave."

Mina made a face, but Rose dragged her along to the kitchen door and they disappeared from view.

"How do we do this thing?"

Will's voice seemed strained.

"Calmly and without giving her anything to use against us later" he suggested. "I really really wish my mother had had only one sibling..."

They entered the living room hand in hand and closed the door with a soft 'snick'. Anne was on them - or at least tried - in a split second.

"Tell them I live here!" she demanded from William, straining against the hold the uniformed policeman had on her.

"No, you don't" he answered simply. "Officer Reilly. Gentlemen."

"Mr Darcy" Reilly nodded stiffly. "This woman claims she is a resident of your... estate. Can you please confirm or deny, for the record?"

"I deny. She used to be a guest, I admit, but she had never been a permanent resident here. Can we have her removed and sued for unlawful entry?"

"Oh, with pleasure. Still, we'll need some details here... You say she was a guest. When did that end?"

"September the 25th."

"And how was the situation... dissolved?"

"I removed her and her mother from the house, forbidding them to ever come near it or anyone from my family."

"So today's situation... it's not that she had been invited here?"

"Absolutely. I had no contact with her since."

"I see, thank you. And can you please now verify the following statement. I quote 'There is my stuff in that house and I can come and get it back, nobody can keep me from taking my own things', end quote."

"I suppose there are some of her possessions here. In the attic, as the cleaning crew had removed all the content left by her in the room she was occupying."

"Don't you dare touch my stuff!" Anne was squirming like mad now.

"...except for the part that was removed by the police and that you, I suppose, have now stored in the evidence for this whole unholy mess."

Aaaand Anne quieted instantly, shooting Reilly a suspicious look.

"Well, yes. That plant matter found..."

"I need it! It's medicinal!"

The silence in the room seemed to tell Anne that whatever she had just said wasn't really good for her.

"So you admit that the leaves we have retrieved from your room belonged to you?"

"I..." she sniffed. "I want a lawyer. Now."

"You will be given one, as soon as we ascertain you are entitled to legal aid" Reilly assured her. "Now, do you have _any_ kind of proof that you actually currently live here?"

Anne sniffed derisively.

"And what kind of proof would fit?"

"Any bills you pay for your residence here? Any kind of property in your name? Any proof of participation in the upkeep of the place?"

Anne's nose went even higher and she turned away from the policemen.

"I see. Very well. Mr Darcy, thank you for your help. Giles, Thommer, please remove her. Miss Bennet, I hope you are fine. I will be back to take your testimony in a moment."

Anne dug in her heels and looked at Elizabeth as if she had only then noticed her presence.

"You" she breathed. "You are here."

"Yep" Elizabeth infused that one word with all the insolence she could gather. "And _you_ are leaving."

"Forever, if you ask me" William's arm sneaked around her waist, hand resting in a rather possessive manned on her hip, fingers splayed on her stomach.

"W..."

"She shouldn't be here either!" Anne exploded, spittle flying. "I'm sure she doesn't have any proof of residence! If I have to leave, so does she! She is not allowed to stay here!"

"I think you are mistaken, Miss De Bourgh" Reilly shook her head slowly. "We are not here to remove _every_ guest from Pemberley. Just the unwanted ones. From what I see, Miss Bennet seems to be staying here at the owner's invitation."

"Shut up! Shut up, you stupid, stupid copper! Shut up! She has to leave! She stole him from me! Arrest her _right now_! She..." Anne took a long draught of air and hiccoughed suddenly. "Take *hic* her to *hic* prison *hic* she doesn't *hic* belong here *hic*."

It shouldn't have been funny. There was nothing funny about the situation. Anne was obviously disturbed _and_ on a warpath. Catherine was maybe less disturbed, but able to do much more damage just due to the influence she had on the local society. There was something very wrong with the both of them, if one was moved to committing a burglary and another to publicly assaulting Elizabeth and the girls on the fair.

Yet Anne trying to scream deprecations interspersed with loud, wet hiccough may have been the absolutely most hilarious thing Elizabeth had seen for the whole weekend.

She snorted.

She giggled.

She curled up, trying to contain a laugh threatening to escape her any minute.

Finally, she let it go and chortled like a loon in the face of enraged woman in front of her.

"I'm so, so sorry" she gasped as Reilly turned to her. "It's just... she is so... I mean, that hiccough... And..." she tried to explain what she saw, but the officer nodded, smiling.

"Absolutely. You've had a rather trying day, and this..."

Elizabeth saw Reilly's lips twitching slightly in contained smile. Yet there was something more, something closer to _satisfaction_ than simple amusement.

"To the car, now" the policewoman ordered. "And book her for burglary, possession of restricted substance and..." she glanced at Brian "Any damages?"

"Just the door when she tried to get out of the storage they had put her in."

"Not enough really. Well, then, I think this should be enough to hold her for forty-eight, right? take her away."

 

#

 

Reilly sat with them at the large table and flipped her notebook open.

"I will probably need to ask the girls to tell me what they saw, too" she warned them apologetically. "If this goes to the court, they may be called as witnesses, but then there is a procedure the court will have to follow, which sarge will have better details of - about only interviewing them once, without audience and so on. For now, however, I would like to have as good a picture of what happened as possible, and considering Wilhelmina is already a rather prominent _actor_ in this whole..." she shrugged. "It would be good to get their side, too."

"And they probably remember some details I missed..." Elizabeth felt her head swimming a bit. "Let's start with me, and if you feel you need more, we can ask them? Will, can you go and sit with them? We shouldn't leave them alone like that..."

"They are hardly alone" he corrected her. "But I will, love. Don't strain yourself."

Reilly - Constable Reilly - turned out to be a reasonable if slightly stiff young woman. She allowed Elizabeth to just tell her tale as it came to her - with pauses and moments needed to gather her thoughts.

"I didn't notice her showing up" Elizabeth finished. "I must have nodded off, it was so stuffy in that tent. This is the part that the girls may help you with."

"I see..." Reilly chewed the end of her pen. "Seems like I have almost everything from _this_ one and sarge already told me that the old witch had admitted... Oups."

Elizabeth cocked her head and looked at Reilly inquisitively.

"You seem to have had more than casual kind of relationship to the family here."

The policewoman rolled her eyes.

"My sister used to say it's easier work than busing the tables in the town - one weekend with one specific set of troublesome customers and not a whole week being screamed at by someone else every five minutes. And that at the end of the day, the money is guaranteed, she doesn't have to smile like an idiot for tips and it's all properly taxed and registered, so no under the counter 'bonus' from the boss. Lack of groping was a definite advantage."

Elizabeth bit her lip.

"And the disadvantage...?"

Reilly shrugged.

"Both of them were removed from this house last month. Wanda always said she could completely commiserate with maidservants in the old movies and that she blesses whoever invented indoor plumbing. Now, let's review my protocol, just to make sure I didn't miss some pertinent detail."

 

#

 

Nothing more exciting was going to happen to them for a long time, or so Elizabeth hoped quietly. Both Anne and Catherine had been detained, each on enough charges to make a judge think twice before they would go lenient on the two. William's lawyer had filed a request for a restraining order (pending a court hearing, unfortunately). The police had gathered their story (Rose and Mina just had to confirm what she had testified) and they were informed that the recording from the tent across from the candy stand had been retrieved and added to the evidence. All they could do now was to wait - for court summons, mostly.

She tried working but the shakes that had plagued her ever since the incident in the tent made it too hard to type - and the way her thoughts run in rounds made it a challenge to focus.

It had been over twelve hours since the police left and she still couldn't calm down.

The house was quiet on that Monday morning. The girls were at school, the estate crew was securing trees for the winter, Mrs Reynolds had retired to her room with a thick book and William was at the office. Only Georgiana was upstairs, but made next to no noise, which usually meant either research or writing. Elizabeth didn't want to interrupt her, but she really needed someone's input.

Lunch. Lunch was a good excuse.

 

#

 

"Georgie? Tea, something to eat?"

Following a confirming sound from the inside she pushed the door open.

Georgiana was sitting in the middle of the floor, surrounded by photos and stacks of papers, looking at a framed photograph of some kind.

"Thank you, Lizzy" she said distractedly. "I kind of forgot to check the time..."

The younger woman put the photo away and rose, helping herself with a nearby chair.

"I was trying to find my old archery mementos" she explained. "I wish we had had facebook these days, because e-mail groups fell apart too quickly. I stopped keeping in touch with others, even ones from the general area. There were some nice people on these events. Ah, tea, you are a godsend, Lizzy."

"You know you can still look them up on facebook and reconnect" Elizabeth suggested. "It is allowed."

"Yeah" Georgiana shrugged. "Probably I could. Not sure who would like to 'reconnect' with me. Not like I'm doing anything remotely exciting."

"Probably more exciting than half of them" Lizzy suggested. "Remember that the basic content of any social media is funny home videos, cute fluffy kittens, American politics, big pharma fearmongering and lying about the level of awesomeness of one's vacation. Even when someone complains, it's not to show the real face of someone less-than-happy with the world, it's just to draw attention to them and make others make soothing noises."

Georgiana was by this point laughing so hard she had to put the tea mug back on the tray to avoid spilling the tea.

"You... You are... the most awful... cynical creature... I've ever... seen!"

"That's pure and unadulterated truth" Elizabeth shrugged. "I barely check my facebook at all, mainly to see updates from the two out of three girls from my high school that were not completely awful. Anyway, I happily removed the few people I accepted because of some kind of obligation - parents of Mina classmates, that kind of crap, so now my facebook is Jane, Mary, two classmates and my favourite aunt and uncle, who had moved to Australia, of all places. Well, and I follow all my favourite authors and actors, the ones still alive, that is."

Georgiana sipped her tea.

"Do you believe all these celebrities actually post all this by themselves?"

Elizabeth shrugged.

"Gaiman's tumblr looks quite 'himself'. A number of more-or-less celebrities that I like have their actual own twitter accounts, like Mark Hamill or Georgia Tennant. Some of the facebook accounts are valid and self-run, too, and even if it's the public relations person, it's still nice to know when someone is coming to a Comic Con or whatever."

"You go to _Comic Cons_? Like... This big loud thing with the actors and everything?"

"Yep. And the film fairs and book fairs and Potter cons and... Well, we were discussing a Doctor Who one, too, but it's 3 weeks from now and I don't think we will have time... Anyway it's in Bristol."

"And Mina likes them? I mean, does she know what all these things are about?"

"Mary and I brought her up. What would you guess we were reading to her as bedtime stories, the Grimm Fairy Tales?"

Georgiana made a questioning sound around a bite of a sandwich.

"Chronicles of Narnia, the Hobbit and the Moomins. Five Children. Also, Mary Poppins."

"But I thought... She doesn't seem to be reading that much of fantasy these days...?"

" _Rose_ is reading them. Mina is catching up on other classics that she had missed before. I _might_ have been a bit overly one-track minded when buying her books. Anyway, I took her to every event that seemed reasonably interesting and, for a kid who never wanted to socialise with her schoolmates, she took to _this_ life like a duck to water. Back to _your_ classmates - or rather, competition mates? Go, find them on Facebook and see what happens. They may be willing to, you know, get in contact... Because, let's be honest, you are a bit limited to a small-town society right now. Even with your expanded circles containing whoever Lucy is friends with, you are mostly stuck with us."

Georgiana sipped her tea and grinned.

"You just want to have the house to yourselves at some point, don't you?"

"Well, now that you put it like this... But, it's not what I came here for. I think I will need your help, today if you can. In the town" Elizabeth sighed. "I messed up one rather vital point and I will really need someone's input."

 

####

 

"So... who is going to sign this?"

"Uh. Well, we could go to Mom and Dad..."

"And then they will be doubly stressed."

"Yeah. Not good."

"Hmm... Let me see this again... Ah, see? 'parent or legal guardian'. Easy peasy."

"Not _that_ easy, but..."

"Stop it. We can do it."

"I suppose we can."

 

####

 

"Mom?"

Rose was hovering in the door to the library in her pyjamas, looking as if she was unsure of her welcome.

"Come on in, kitten" Elizabeth pushed the laptop away and put the cup on the saucer. "What's wrong?"

"How..." her older daughter came closer and leaned on the table, looking away. "How long does it take to learn how to play the guitar?"

"Play the guitar?"

Elizabeth blinked.

"Yes. Play... I mean, not like for a concert or something, but, I mean, like kids songs. Something basic."

"OK... I'd say it very much depends on the aim, the experience of the person practising and the time spent..."

"Experience... zero. Null. But if I wanted to learn to play Mina's carol. I mean, we will try to sing it at home during the holidays, right? I could, you know. Show everyone that I... I mean..."

"You want to show off, just a little bit, don't you?"

Elizabeth probably wasn't handling this in the best way possible, but being brutally honest and straightforward had its advantages. And Rose laughed.

"Well, maybe, a little. I mean, I don't want to _sing_ , because I feel like I'm late to the party, but Mina never touched the guitar when we were at the camp and then it all kind of got fuzzy and now we're here and she has enough on her plate... And I wanted to surprise her, at least a little."

"So you want to learn to... have something that Mina has never touched before?"

"I suppose so..." her daughter shrugged. "Nah. That was stupid. Sorry. I'll go to bed now."

"No no no no no. Come on, tell me. What would you like to start with?"

"Just Mina's carol. Maybe not like that complicated version _you_ are playing, but... I mean, if we could, like, play it together to accompany her, I mean, I.... I have savings and I want to buy myself a guitar, but only if I know it makes sense, right?"

Her daughter was _radiating_ embarrassment and, at the same time, defiance.

 _Oh_.

"Of course, kitten. I can give you the basic lessons, how to hold the guitar and so on. If you want to keep it secret, we'll have to work out some way to hide it from Mina, but it shouldn't be that hard. Pull up a chair, we can even start right now."

Rose's eyes were as big as saucers, but she dragged one of the stuffed chairs closer and sat straight, watching her expectantly.

"Now, first, the construction of a guitar. There is the body, which is the box here, then there is the neck and the headstock. The neck has these little metal pieces in, they are called frets. They are there to help you position your fingers when you press the strings. Strings, six of them. They are of different thickness and each gives a different sound. You with me?"

Rose nodded slowly.

"OK. So when you play your basic campsite songs..."

 

#

 

The rest of the evening Elizabeth spent rearranging the guitar accompaniment to the carol she and Mina picked to make it simpler and achievable for Rose. It would be a challenge, but it could be done. Of course, only if her older daughter really _wanted_ to do it and if the younger one didn't interfere with their lessons. Rose's pride would never recover, should it become known she was trying to catch up to Mina in some way.

That little competitive streak they both had was one element Elizabeth dearly wished she could eliminate.

_I would be so much happier if they stopped comparing themselves. Well, that would have required whole world to lay off on comparing, unfortunately, and there is little chance for that._

"What _are_ you doing?" William's hands sneaked around her waist and his slightly stubbly cheek touched hers.

"Helping one of our daughters to do something in secret from the other. I just wish I knew how to keep it away from Mina..."

"Mhm. Rose wants to learn the guitar?" he seemed surprised.

"Yes. And I won't hear a peep of protest from you, mister."

His cold nose trailed a line from her clavicle to her ear.

"I wouldn't dare to make one" he huffed softly in it. "But will you accept assistance in keeping Mina as far from the two of you as possible, hm?"

She sighed and grimaced.

"Yeah, if you have some reasonable idea how to do _that_."

"Oh" he chuckled and kissed her cheek. "I think I can safely keep her busy for a few afternoons. She had to learn the layout of the neighbourhood, after all, so, as a responsible parent..."

She felt a smile tugging at one corner of her lips.

"She has to learn the plan of the gardens some day, too."

"Well, she did spend most of September afternoons on scouting them out."

"But that doesn't necessarily mean she knows the cultural significance of all the little ruins and follies."

"We shall have to do some tactical allocation of their time."

"When do they separate at all?"

"Stable duty. Rose kicked Mina out after a few days of attempted help, when Mina shied away from Hector and tripped over a bucket. Made so much noise the horses were still kicking up a fuss half an hour later."

"Ah. Well then, when Rose is doing whatever she is doing, you ask Mina to join you on a little trip, I call Rose upstairs and have a lesson with her."

William frowned slightly, but then nodded.

"That... that will work..." he trailed off. "Actually, I... Ah, nevermind. I will find us something to do away from the house, no worries."

She pursed her lips, but decided to let it go. Whatever it was, letting William have more time with Mina was an objective to be striven for, whatever means were used.

 

####

  


"Kitten, I have a mission for you. Or, maybe, a quest for me and I would be asking you to assist me."

Mina looked up from over the large, beautifully illustrated volume of "The Little Humpbacked Horse" she had opened flat on the carpet and watched him quietly.

"Come on. To the car. We are going on a small trip."

"But Rose is in the stables..." she protested, standing up.

"And Mom has a job for Rose, so she will be busy. Come on. Take your jacket."

She looked at him quizzically, but got dressed and soon they were sitting in the car.

"All right" he inhaled slowly. "I actually told Elizabeth that I will be showing you the neighbourhood so that you don't feel so weird when you are just out and about, but..."

"But?"

"But really I need your help in preparing something for her. Because you, my dear, are the official expert on all things related to daily life with Elizabeth. You've been with her, just the two of you, for the last thirteen years, give or take a few months."

"Yeah. I suppose."

"That's about six times longer than I have. And that's why I need _you_ to tell _me_ some things. I want to make a surprise for Elizabeth and I need your input."

"But, Dad... Won't Mom find it, whatever it is...?"

Mina looked worried, but ready to help.

"Oh, I think we are going to be very, very smart and sneaky about it. And Mom is going to be terribly busy over the next few days, so we will make use of it. Now, let me tell you what I was thinking about..."

 

####

 

Rose had scrubbed her hands and changed from her "work clothes" and was now sitting with the guitar lain across her knees, listening to Mom's explanations. She was terribly, terribly afraid this might have been a mistake. Some of what Mom said made a bit of a sense, but most...

She looked up when Mom fell silent.

"You have no idea what I'm talking about."

She shook her head.

"OK. OK" Mom got up and puffed out her cheeks. "Now I know what Maria felt. OK. Let's start with the very beginning. Now, notes on the piano, the C major key, the basic ones that everyone learns, are the following. Do, re, mi, fa, so, la, ti. As the strings on the guitar are tuned to various notes, we can't just play the same on the guitar. But! The strings have the specific note they play right now, but only one note each - for now. If we pluck this one, it will play E, which is mi. But if I now press my finger to the first fret and then pluck the same string, it will be F, or fa, half a note higher, because I just made the string a bit shorter. And if I go down and down the fretboard, each line means a half-tone less. The same for other strings, just starting from a different note on each. And the whole idea is to press these strings in such a combination that when we strike them here, at the body, they sound together like something specific. I'm not going to teach you details, I'm just going to teach you the exact ways to put your fingers and how they are called, OK? And then we will practise the accompaniment for Mina's carol until our fingers bleed."

"What is Mina doing right now?"

Elizabeth shrugged.

"Your Dad is taking her out to show her the area, so that she knows what is where. He will text me when they turn back home."

 

####

  


The Halloween evening itself had come and gone without much hassle. Nobody really did trick-and-treating in the area, and Pemberley was a bit too far for even most intrepid children from Lambton, so on Tuesday evening the whole family curled up in William's study and watched some adequately entertaining superhero movie, namely the "Wonder Woman". The children were entranced and even William who habitually scoffed at the thought of people in tights and spandex, seemed to be complaining less than normally.

"These were some good actors" he explained his unusual lack of scathing comments. "I think they actually started to hire people who can move their faces and not stiff as a rake shop dummies."

"And it has nothing to do with Gal Gadot's..."

"None whatsoever. And of course _your_ enthusiasm for the movie is in no way related to the way Chris Pine..."

"Not at all. Now, shove over, you are hogging the bed. No idea how you do it, but even in a bed that size you manage to... William!"

"Oh, just shut up and go to sleep, you horrible little woman."

They fell silent for a moment.

"How did it go with Rose?" he murmured into her neck.

"She is determined. Not sure how long it will last, but she seems rather intent on this. She wants to be able to play for Mina by Christmas."

"But she can't just start playing, I mean, they'd have to practise together a bit, right?"

She shrugged.

"For just playing at home, she can, more or less. If she wanted to play with Mina at the competition, well, that's another story."

"Mhm."

"Yes. So, sleep, you said? Boring."

"I could be convinced..."

 

####

 

The whole school was buzzing with excitement for the rest of the week, but Mina felt slightly disconnected from it all. Maybe it was the explosive weekend, from the little high after the cosplay contest to the sudden crash of aunt Catherine's unexpected appearance, to a turn of Anne having broken into the house, to the police taking down Mom's testimony (and theirs, albeit much shorter). Maybe it was the little secret she and Dad were keeping - fortunately not planned to be kept for very long, because she had never managed to keep a secret from her Mom effectively.

Maybe it was the perspective of the whole house being invaded by first strangers and then family, or meeting uncle Richard again, or...

"Wilhelmina Darcy, will you please pay attention? Can you repeat the reaction I just described?"

Or falling half-asleep during Chemistry. Just perfect.

 

#

 

The whole school was buzzing with excitement for the rest of the week, but Mina felt slightly disconnected from it all. Maybe it was the explosive weekend, from the little high after the cosplay contest to the sudden crash of aunt Catherine's unexpected appearance, to a turn of Anne having broken into the house, to the police taking down Mom's testimony (and theirs, albeit much shorter). Maybe it was the little secret she and Dad were keeping - fortunately not planned to be kept for very long, because she had never managed to keep a secret from her Mom effectively.

Maybe it was the perspective of the whole house being invaded by first strangers and then family, or meeting uncle Richard again, or...

"Wilhelmina Darcy, will you please pay attention? Can you repeat the reaction I just described?"

Or falling half-asleep during Chemistry. Just perfect.

 

#

 

Big posters were now taped to the school entrance, letting everyone know that the Halloween Ball (full costume suggested) would be taking place on Friday evening, starting at 18:00. The lessons would end at 14:00 to allow everyone to get home, eat something and get back to school.

Mina wasn't sure anymore she wanted to go to the ball. _Everyone_ from school would be there, which meant much more people than she normally met during breaks or lunch. Which meant social awkwardness and weird glances and people commenting on her and Rose and girls from Year 10 commenting on her and Teddy and...

Someone touched her shoulder and she jumped.

"Whoa, Mina" her sister stepped back. "You OK?"

She shrugged and looked away.

"Just... this week is weird."

"Tell me about it. I saw aunt Catherine get arrested and that is something you don't see every day. Like, I mean, she was always here, and now, poof, they had taken her away. And that lawyer Dad has is working on making sure she or Anne can't come close to us ever again."

"I don't believe it. I think it won't work. Even if the court says they have to keep away, they won't. Aunt Catherine sounded like she didn't care Dad wanted Mom here, so why would she listen to a judge?"

Rose flinched.

"Maybe if they tell her Anne would get arrested..."

"Then she would claim they were being harassed. Or something."

"Pessimistic much?"

"Always. Mum says that being pessimistic makes you either right or pleasantly surprised."

"But also a downer. So, stop it. We are going home early today, we dress up and then we get back here. You are going to dance with your... whoever he is. And I will stand on the sidelines and make fun of you. Deal?"

Mina groaned, dropping her head into her hands.

"Don't wanna go" she mumbled. "Everyone will be staring, like at some freaks. Everyone knows we are _weird_ and..."

"Stop whining. Also, if you don't go, some enterprising Year 10 may try taking Teddy away from you."

Mina sighed.

"If you love something, let it free" she said without much bite. "I mean, really, if he wants someone else, then... I mean, I would be ready to scratch her eyes out, whoever she was. But I can't bring myself to _care_ right now."

"Uh-oh" was the only sound Rose made. "But if you don't go, you will spend the whole evening fretting at home, I will spend the whole evening like an idiot dressed as an Elsa but without an Anna and Teddy will spend it worrying he did something wrong. You know he is such a delicate boy."

Mina glared at her in reproach.

"He will hate it personally. So, you know, ignore the crowds, I will be there and your cute school team captain boyfriend will be there. What more do you need? Everyone will be dancing like idiots anyway."

"But not everyone will be dancing like idiots who have no idea what they are doing" Mina wrung her hands. "They will _know_ I can't dance. I... I never even learnt anything like cha-cha or rumba or..."

"Yeah, I know. You are fine with the waltz, though. That's better than half of the school."

"Yes, but I... I kind of don't see us dancing a _waltz_ at a school dance. I mean, isn't it like in Grease or stuff? Rock and roll and all these silly figures?"

Rose was silent for a moment.

"Have you _ever_ been to a school dance? I mean, ever ever?"

"Yeah, the preschool had them. Mostly dancing in a circle of everyone jumping like monkeys."

"But later, no?"

Mina pursed her lips.

"There were some" she said softly. "Never went to any. Why should I have?"

"Yeah, you are right. With the pricks at your school being like you said, why bother. But you know Davison had been ordered to not come closer to us and he is the one reason I'd see you actively avoiding the dance."

"It's just... there will be so many people!"

"And there will be Teddy."

"But..!"

"Teddy."

"You can stop repeating that! I know..."

"Hi."

Mina looked up finally.

"Ah. Um. Hi, Teddy."

 

####

 

The old gym was decorated as much as a large space surrounded by climbing ladders could be decorated. Weird, vaguely spiderwebby objects swished under the ceiling, the windows were covered with black crepe and most of the lights were green, blue or icy white, making all participants look as if they had been freshly hauled out of a lake. Or not yet hauled out, when the green was temporarily prominent.

There were dance chaperons placed in strategical spots across the dancing floor and the school cook was guarding the refreshments table (mostly consisting of single-serving juice containers and pre-wrapped cookies to avoid the risk of someone spiking the punch or using the food for some unsavoury purposes).

And there was the traditional row of boys supporting the back wall staunchly in the obvious effort not to let the building tumble on everyone's heads and the equally traditional row of girls clinging to the wall by the windows. And quite, quite traditional very empty and very visible stretch of floor between the two.

Rose entered, followed not-so-quickly by Mina, who had been dawdling as her shoes became unbuckled and she wanted to fix them before they went in. Which was reasonable, considering the way lights had been set up.

_Oh well._

At least the person managing the playlist (nobody could call him a DJ) was the _other_ music teacher, which made Lucy - Miss Yang - free to have a date with aunt Georgiana. The _other_ music teacher, Mr Winton, was watching them all with slight exasperation as he changed the tracks - in an obvious bid at engaging someone. Anyone!

Nope. There is no force on Earth that would make a bunch of secondary school students move before the other side gives in and cracks. There was no way the boys would abandon their sacred duty of making sure the wall wouldn't crumble. There was no way the girls would leave their preferred window perches.

Until the first beats of the guitar-like synth came on and a soft "oooo" joined it, soon accompanied by a female giggle. Immediately, as if directed by a magic wand, rows of teens formed, with everyone (or almost everyone) waving their hips to the rhythm, waiting for the actual vocals to kick in.

 

_When I dance they call me Macarena_

_And the boys they say que soy buena_

 

Hands forward.

Hands behind your neck.

Hands on your hips.

Twist, down, jump, turn.

_Heeey, Macarena._

 

The faces around them counting, counting the moves, when to switch, when to move your hand, full focus on Getting It Perfect.

And her sister, eyes wide and feet stumbling, clearly overwhelmed by the sudden rush.

"Come here" she pulled Mina closer and next to herself in the row. "Just move your hands like I do. You'll do fine."

"B-but..."

"Forward. Left. Neck, right. Left. Hip, right. Left. Looow and jump."

Mina was struggling, but heyy, Macarena, everyone was losing focus, jumping the wrong way or mixing up some weird, sped-up version of hand movements.

It was dark enough for nobody to be really self-conscious.

Except for Wilhelmina Darcy, of course.

The music fluidly sequed into a tribal cry, shouting and then

 

_You're a good soldier_

_Choosing your battles_

_Pick yourself up_

_And dust yourself off_

_Get back in the saddle_

 

Mina's eyebrows were lost somewhere up in her fringe as a line of ballroom gowned classmates formed, their hands together and everyone joined in the chorus.

 

_Tsamina mina, eh eh_

_Waka waka, eh eh_

_Tsamina mina zangalewa_

_This time for Africa_

 

Rose had to admit, Mr Winton _knew_ what he was doing. Ball or no ball, kicking things of with Macarena worked every time.

She could only hope Mina would find something she liked soon, or this whole evening will be much less fun with her sister sulking in the corner.

 

_...oh-oh-oh-oh-oh!_

_I'm Gazelle, welcome to Zootopia._

 

Oh. Mina was suddenly just next to her.

 

_I won't give up, no I won't give in!_

 

The whole gym was jumping. Ball dresses, fairy skirts, lycra leggings, tuxedos, pirates, even a few Zorros and firemen.

Rose suspected Shakira to be something closer to a force of nature than a normal human.

Also, finally, her sister was dancing - well, moving. At least there was no specific dancing move linked to this song, because Mina seemed woefully uneducated in these, if she didn't even know Macarena.

The song changed to something a bit slower, but not yet _slow_ slower, so there were groups now forming and there was some actual dancing-with-each-other where the school sweethearts finally gave in to the temptation and threw caution to the wind, showing in front of the whole gathering that they do, in fact, have something in common (unlike during lunchbreak, when they showed it to everyone without batting an eye).

Rose looked around, searching for her sister, but Mina was nowhere to be seen.

The good thing was, she finally saw Teddy.

Oh, that boy.

He was wearing a cream-coloured long-sleeve t-shirt, neck open almost to his sternum, black almost-leather on top of this, dark trousers and very high boots. His normally carefully combed hair was artistically tossed. And there was a very nice replica of a phaser gun in the holster strapped to his waist and thigh.

"May the Force be with you" she greeted him when he made his way towards her.

"Ah... Your sister here?" he asked worriedly.

"She should be..." Rose looked around again. "Damn, can't see her. Anyway, don't expect too much, Mina isn't really that good at whatever we are dancing."

"Thank you, dear sister."

_Uh-oh._

Teddy shook his head slowly.

"And what _do_ you dance?"

Mina passed by Rose and stood closer to the boy.

"Waltzes. And Polonaise, and, well, Ländler, but I think only my dancing teacher had ever actually _danced_ it."

"With that teacher being our uncle Charles, who knows where he picked it up," Rose chipped in. "I mean, I don't think there is any school..."

They weren't listening to her anymore.

And of course Teddy knew how to waltz. Viennese seemed to be revoltingly easy for him. And they got to see it immediately, because the next song on was "Have You Ever Loved a Woman" and to the sound of Bryan Adams Teddy pulled her sister closer and started waltzing her around the emptier parts of the floor.

_Ok, Rose. He seems like a keeper. Just don't let the horde of overprotective grownups mess it up for her._

"It's weird" Marika stepped closer. "I mean I know it's not you and I know Strickland seems to gave grown some new brain cells in the last half year, but..."

"Yeah. She really likes him, you know. She doesn't know him very well, she had never met his parents, I'm not sure she knows which one Theresa is... We are the ones that remember him since daycare, but _she_ fancies him."

Marika looked around the gym searchingly.

"Really, and what do you see of local offer that would beat Strickland's bid for her attention?"

Rose followed her, frowning.

"Not much really. But Teddy had never looked like a candidate for anyone's attentions to me, so any of these could be, you know, having hidden depths."

Rose ended up being asked to dance by one of the boys from Teddy's year and had to focus in order not to mess it up too much (he also wasn't exactly at the same level of proficiency as Teddy), so she was forced to take a break from watching her sister. When the music turned again to some faster beat, however, she saw Teddy following Mina to the side of the room with a resigned expression as Mina was explaining something expressively. They found a spot out of the way and proceeded to melt into each other's arms in such a cloying display of tenderness Rose felt her blood sugar rising just from watching them.

With her sister in good hands, she decided to stay on the floor and dance until she'd be unable to stand straight anymore. Latino dances in a ball gown weren't exactly easy, but she made it work.

Also, her sister would be very definitely in her debt after that evening.

 

#

 

Dad showed up around nine, poked his head in, noticed Rose had seen him, patted his watch and showed her ten fingers, nodding to the outside. She confirmed from across the room and went in search of the lovebirds.

They were at the same time easy to find and hard to catch, as Teddy seemed to be able to find a way to waltz to anything vaguely resembling a triple time and managed to keep her sister entertained for most of the time, as long as the beat wasn't too fast.

They had probably been binging on each other's closeness in expectation of diminishing chances for anything even loosely resembling dates in the coming weeks. In the declining weather the only place they would be seeing each other would be school and that was not a sustainable solution. Their parents would be busy with the wedding preparations and everything, but even they would notice if Rose came back home alone and she was not willing to stick around when these two made sweet eyes at each other, so Mina and Teddy would have to limit themselves to the lunch breaks and occasional "walk to the bus stop" or something equally inane.

Finally she placed herself on their trajectory and even Teddy's superior ballroom skills in avoiding objects didn't save them.

"Sorry to break this up, but Dad is waiting outside."

Well, _that_ brought them to a halt.

"We have to get dressed and be out there in five minutes. Come on, little sister, your carriage awaits."

"It won't turn into a pumpkin until midnight" her sister rolled her eyes. "But fine, fine... Nobody wants to risk Dad coming in and being forced to hunt for us."

Teddy grimaced, just slightly, but Mina hugged him closer and they strolled towards the makeshift cloakroom set in the entrance to the gym, where they retrieved their coats - and Teddy's green jacket - and started dressing. It wasn't really cold outside, but their dresses (despite all their long sleeves) didn't really cover them all that well, so their fall coats and scarves had been deemed mandatory by Mom before they left the house.

"Girls, I hope you... Hello, Theodore."

Rose shook her head minutely. Dad really, really needed to work on his Evil Overlord/Godfather impression. Mostly, he had to tone it down, or Teddy would faint if one time Dad actually _became_ annoyed at him.

"Mr Darcy."

"I hope you all had an enjoyable evening."

_Maybe I should tell him that threatening Teddy this way is so last century._

"I definitely hope Mina had one. I think it was rather pleasant."

_Ten points for this gentleman._

"And what made it _pleasant_ , pray tell?"

_Geez, DAD._

"Finding someone in that school that actually can dance Viennese waltz" Mina interrupted the exchange. "Because I don't know a thing about all the latino dances and that kind of stuff, but..."

"Dad, can we, like, go? I mean, I'll melt if we stand here any longer" Rose didn't like the way Dad was looking at Teddy right that minute - especially when Strickland was looking down, buttoning his military-style jacket.

"Goodnight, Teddy" Dad said with emphasis.

"Goodnight, sir. Ah, Mina..."

Rose watched as her sister turned away from where she was trying to stare down their father and stepped closer to Teddy.

...and here it was, Dad's blood pressure rising, his lips opening for some scathing remark...

...and Teddy pressed a small kiss to Mina's cheek and hugged her.

He _definitely_ was a keeper. His talent for toeing the line was like a natural resource, not to be wasted.

"See you on Monday, Starlight" she heard him say softly.

_Starlight?_

"See you on Monday, Teddy."

 

#

 

"So" Dad smiled at them in the back mirror. "Waltz?"

"Teddy leads rather well" Mina said softly. "He doesn't throw a girl around, like some guys do."

"Oh, really."

"Yep. And he doesn't step on my toes."

"Which is also nice, when the bloke has like two stone on you" Rose added quickly. "Unlike some other players who don't know where their toes should be going."

Dad winced.

"But I hope you've had a nice evening despite these unfortunate..."

Rose yawned and waved the problem away.

"Got rid of them, easily."

"So... How was Teddy then?"

"Teddy was a perfect gentleman" Mina's voice had a slightly tense quality now. "Why are you asking like this?"

Dad raised his brows and shrugged.

"I only meant... school dances can be a risky situation, conflicts and..."

"Daaaad, really? I mean, _really_?"

"Just checking."

Oh. He was trying to wind Mina up a bit. And she was not falling for it.

"If Richard tried being stupid again, you need better tactics than flouncing away in a huff, kitten. You can call him out, you know. Just like you did right now."

Rose glanced at her sister with sudden interest.

"So this is what you two have been doing for the last three days?"

Her sister nodded with a sly smile.

"Among other things, yep. Dad has been showing me all the places in Lambton and everywhere around that I should know are there - dumb stuff, like the pharmacy and the other police stations and, basically, whatever. I suppose I will learn better in the spring, when we can take bicycles to school and then we could explore the town. I wish we could go to that pottery place..."

"We'll talk about the bicycles when the spring comes. I really don't like the idea of you riding just next to the cars..." Dad was shaking his head. "But, for the time being, Mina needed to see things in a systematic way, so we went out and I showed her all the pieces that you didn't have time to - and it's perfectly normal, don't look at me like that, it's just that I think I remember some details better, sometimes. Like, where the post office is and so on. Anyway, here we are, safely home. Just be warned - tomorrow, the cleaning crew is coming in a huge group. They will be here early in the morning, starting work on the empty rooms, just to give them a thorough cleaning and shaking out the beds - who knows what they will find this time! - so don't be surprised when they show up. They will just wash the windows in both your rooms and mop the floor, so pick up all your rugs today and get them out to be beaten, too, with all the other normal carpets. And pick up everything in the work room. Your Mom has an appointment in the morning, so, Mina..." he nodded. "Explain to Rose what I told you."

A small pang of uncertainty pierced Rose's heart.

Dad and Mina were conspiring about something.

Well...

She and Mom were conspiring about something, too, but...

"Come on, Rose" her sister pulled her upstairs, still in her coat and boots. "You're going to _love_ this. Just remember - don't tell Mom."

 


	27. We'll build the fire high - p4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Weekend of house cleaning and preparation

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm trying to finally catch up to the calendar, but I'm not sure I'll manage! ;)

Saturday started with a blast of cold air when a merry, chattering troop of students traipsed into the kitchen and started dividing themselves into teams assigned to various tasks. Derek and Pat coopted Mrs Reynolds to help them put the helpers into order and soon there was a group of cleaners heading outside with secured ladders to start on the upstairs windows, another headed to the cellars to haul out the fruit still waiting to be processed while another group pulled on their jackets and left in the direction of the fall apple orchard.

Elizabeth joined them downstairs as soon as she got dressed and handed Derek the list of tasks she wanted them to cover - instructing him to refer to Mrs Reynolds' judgement in case of any doubts. When she was hastily swallowing her tea and watching Georgiana sleepily munching on her own breakfast, William joined them downstairs.

"They are still asleep" he related with a grin. "I think they were up for half the night, probably dissecting their friends and whatever happened at the dance."

"I hope that at least nobody got drunk" Georgiana sighed. "I remember our dances - well, the few that I went to - and there was always someone trying to smuggle in hard liquor. Older boys, usually, or ones who had older siblings..."

"I'm not sure I want to hear the details, but on the other hand..." William shook his head. "Anyway. You two heading out right now? I'm staying home, so I'll manage the crews, just tell me what you need to see done."

Elizabeth shook her head with a smile.

"Derek has my list. Just make sure they have access to everything and that they are done washing the upstairs windows and floors by the time we are back, I will need some quiet working time today."

He hugged her and she allowed herself to lean on him, just a bit.

"Code going poorly?"

"Quite the opposite. If I find enough time today to do what I had planned, I may be done by Tuesday, instead of Friday, so I will be able to relax a bit before Saturday" she patted his shoulder. "I will just need some quiet, no interruptions until I finish, and a pot of tea."

"I think we can guarantee _that_. I will text you if we need anything, but be prepared to make a short shopping run to Spar, we will definitely need more sugar than we have in the house. And lemons, a few kilos. And, I think, a big can of cinnamon. And some vanilla."

She looked at Georgiana, who shrugged and washed down her last roll with tea.

"Fine. Not sure how long it will take anyway, so just make sure the girls do any kind of homework they might have been given last week and then make sure they go out for a bit - just don't let them catch a cold, you know."

"Lizzy..." he hugged her a bit closer. "I think I can manage two teenagers for a few hours all by myself. Go. Have fun. Even... I don't know. I won't say 'do some shopping' because I don't want to sound like a typical male sending out women to have fun at the shops, but, you know. Whatever you feel is missing at the house" he frowned. "Ah. One more thing to do on Monday, visit the bank. But Georgiana has the card... Well. We will see if the team finds out we need something that Mrs Reynolds can't locate and I'll text you then, alright?"

She shook her head in slight exasperation.

"I think we can manage a small shopping trip. It will not affect our feeling of self-worth, Will. Quite the opposite. Also, I've been longing to visit the bookshop, so I will check it out today. Georgie, you ready?"

 

#

 

As Georgiana was looking for a place to park, Elizabeth wondered how much of a scandal, actually, all that would be. William _was_ one of the main landowners and company owners in the area and, frankly, who knew how the so-called society would react to him getting hitched to her... in only a civil ceremony, to boot!

"Come on. Let's see what changes they managed to make since Thursday" her friend nodded towards the dressmaker's shop they had their appointment at. "Good thing you really wanted a simple dress... And that November is not a really popular time for weddings."

Elizabeth sighed and got out of the car.

"Yeah. Let's see."

 

#

 

"Miss Darcy!" the dressmaker greeted Georgiana happily. "The changes to your dress are ready, we can just check it and be done with it in fifteen minutes. Your dress is just being brought in..." she turned to Elizabeth as the door in the back of the store opened. "Like, exactly right now. My partner has been making corrections to it throughout the night, because yesterday we had a power failure here at the shop. Evie! Bring the dress out here?"

"Yeah, yeah" came a slightly breathy reply from the backroom. "Just let me take off my coat. They already in?"

"Yep-p" the dressmaker smiled at them apologetically. "Evie had been sitting whole night and making sure this is ready for today. If all is fine, we will just add the..."

"Lizzy Bennet!"

Elizabeth's eyes snapped from the photobook of dresses spread on the counter to the newcomer.

"Evie Martin! What are _you_ doing here?"

"Pursuing my bloody dreams, against all wishes of my mother. You?"

Elizabeth snorted.

"The same, obviously."

She surveyed the woman holding her dress with curiosity. Still a bit more stocky than average, still in blacks and grays, still... Looking at her with narrowed eyes, trying not to laugh.

"Lizzy?" Georgiana leaned closer. "Care to..."

She snorted.

"Georgie, this is Evie Martin, the third person, from all of my various schools, that I'd classify as 'not very terrible', although she is rather terrible in keeping people updated about herself. What are you, allergic to social networking?" she asked the dressmaker. "And, Evie, this is Georgiana Darcy, my future sister-in-law, so, well... You can guess what exactly I'm doing here."

"Bloody hell" Evie gasped. " _Darcy_? As in, William Darcy, the king on the Pemberley hill, the most sought-after single dad in the county..." her eyes narrowed again. "Oh don't you even tell me. That kid. Yours? Going by the eyes and the fact that with a father that tall she is still... well, a shortarse."

They all stood in silence for a moment until Elizabeth giggled, Evie joining in.

"I honestly hope you didn't voice your opinion on my daughter's height in her hearing."

"I honestly hope you know me better than that, Liz" Evie bared her teeth in a wide smile. "I wouldn't say something like that to a kid, come on. Anyway... wow. I mean, really, wow. You did _well_ for yourself, girl."

"I suppose you did, too" Elizabeth nodded towards the racks of dresses.

"Well, Berta - Berta Dobbing, here, my partner in crime - and I are trying to keep this place afloat. Good thing the shop itself belongs to me, so the cost is easier, but it _is_ hard work. Anyway. Your dress then, milady. Come on, let's see how badly it fits!"

 

#

 

An hour later Georgiana had her dress already in a protective sleeve, hanging from a peg in the main room, where she waited as Berta was taking measurements of a five-year-old prospective flower girl who seemed unable to stand still. As Elizabeth came out in her dress, carefully pinned up in a few more places, her friend looked bored to tears.

"Come on, Georgie, tell me what you think" she said in a slightly wavering voice. "Is it... I mean, it's not exactly..."

Georgiana gave her a once-over and nodded.

"Very good. That will... Very good. Let's just hope William doesn't trip over his own legs when he sees _that_."

Elizabeth _twirled_ in front of the long mirror, admiring the way the material draped.

"Evie, how did you even manage to make this? I mean, I know how long it takes to _cut_ this amount of material!"

Her old classmate winked.

"Let me and Berta keep some professional secrets, Lizzy. I liked the challenge and now that I see it's _you_ , it was all totally worth it. It feels good to prove non-standard stuff can be done. It's not easy to sew for someone who is at the same time short and..." Evie nodded towards Lizzy's bust. "Well, _built_. That's why the so-called designer lines usually don't allow much space for _breathing_. This one should be comfy, easy to put on, quite easy to take off" she winked "and won't show any bra straps in inconvenient places. I hate these dresses that are so fancy they don't allow for a bra underneath. So. Let's take it off you and I'll start working on the corrections. This should be the last fitting, don't worry, I should have it finished by Monday, Tuesday the latest. Do you need any accessories? Gloves, hat flowers, whatever? Do you even _have_ a hat planned?"

Elizabeth rolled her eyes.

"No hat. No time to find one that would match. And I hate them. If you can find me matching gloves, then it would be perfect, but I can live without them... No, I think I have everything. And I do have a perfectly matching pair of shoes, fortunately."

"You could get some accessories for the girls, to give them matching colour accents" Georgiana suggested. "Maybe a pair of neckerchiefs? Rose wants to wear the navy skirt and a blazer and Mina has that dress..."

"Wait, _what_? Girls?" Evie frowned. "You have _two_ kids...?"

"Twins" Elizabeth sighed. "I'll explain everything one day, hm? Maybe we could get a coffee, now that I know you live somewhere in the area? It is kind of a long explanation..."

"Coffee on Tuesday," Evie said decisively. "As a reward for finishing the job in express time, I demand a full story!"

 

#

 

_Evie. Evie bloody Martin._

Elizabeth shook her head. That kind of coincidence should not happen.

"I mean, what _are_ the odds" she whispered. "Of all people."

"That was weird" Georgiana confirmed. "Because, really, this is one big country and you two knew each other from London..."

They parked in front of the big grocery store and sat in the car quietly for a moment.

"It actually explains why she never shows in the 'your classmates are so successful' digests my mother shares with me. This back there? This isn't _a success_ in my mother's book."

Georgiana looked understandably confused.

"Mother thinks that success is getting a bloke - which Evie obviously didn't, or at least didn't marry one - or making a heap of money in some celebrity fashion thing. Which Evie obviously isn't. Also, moving to a small town is a no-no. Unless you are filthy rich, then you can afford to be eccentric. If you are just managing to stay afloat, you are simply weird. Or stupid" she sighed. "Anyway. Evie says she gave up on social networking because all people she had linked to there treated her as if she was crazy to move out into the wilderness, but she agreed that reconnecting with me may be worth the hassle of reanimating her account. And I think I can make her a bit of a publicity - even if it's only the family. I mean, sewing these dresses for the girls was fun, but they were never my forte. Also, it's hard to make them a surprise present of clothes now that they are grown - harder to sew without taking a measure."

"And if you make them something decorative, it's forever. Clothes at this age are a thing for a year if not less."

"Well, they won't grow _much_ taller, I'm afraid, but they will definitely need looser tops, soon."

They sat in silence for a moment.

"We should buy that sugar and go home" Elizabeth suggested reluctantly. "Not that I don't like Pemberley, but being there when the cleaning crew is in..."

"It is a bit of a disaster, yeah."

"We could buy the sugar and the spices..." she trailed off. "And maybe go get a coffee? I mean, just..."

"Skive off housework?" Georgiana giggled.

"Well, a bit? Not like we would be much help, I will not be able to work anyway until they leave and stop making all that noise and they won't be happy with another person watching them."

Georgiana only fetched her purse.

"Fine with me. Sugar, spices, lemons. I will text Mrs Reynolds, see if she needs any groceries done, and then we can go browse in the bookshop and have a coffee there. And we could check the schedule for the knitting club."

Elizabeth got out, buttoned up her coat and stretched slowly.

"The knitting club?"

"Yep. There is one, they advertise on the door. I remember seeing the ad like ages ago but never paid attention to the details. So, Spar first, then coffee? They have cakes and sandwiches, too."

"Absolutely."

 

#

 

Forty pounds of sugar, a jar of cinnamon, a packet of vanilla and five pounds of lemons, two coffees, two slices of fruitcake, an hour of leisurely conversation and several books later they were headed towards the house (with a detour to the greengrocers and the cheese shop). Elizabeth felt a tiny, tiniest twinge of conscience but, by Jove, it felt good to just stop focusing sometimes. To just let go and allow herself the day off. Well, half day.

"I just hope the house is still standing."

"Oh, Will wouldn't allow them to ruin the stupid thing too much" Georgiana took a left turn. "Uh... Can you check my phone? It's buzzing."

She fished out Georgiana's mobile and checked the text message.

"Oh... we have to turn back" she sighed. "Will wrote 'buy 20 peelers, 50 litre jars and cheesecloth', where do we buy cheesecloth?"

"No idea" Georgiana sighed. "Let's start with the peelers. That will be either Spar again or the cook shop. Or the gardening centre, they had all these wine and cheese things..."

The peelers and the cheesecloth turned out to be the easiest part, as apparently, every shop in the vicinity stocked on basic preserves supplies for the fall. Despite that, the jars were in scant supply, due to the simple fact that they were not the first buyers on that particular Saturday and all the estates in the vicinity seemed to be suffering from the surfeit of late fall apples. They managed to clean out the shelves in the supermarket, not even reaching 20l of volume, so they turned towards the Cookshop, where Georgiana managed to arrange for the shop assistant to lend them a little trolley they used to take the jars to the car and Elizabeth fell in love with a cake decorating stand.

Quite soon she found herself dragged by her collar away from the pink shelves by eye-rolling Georgiana.

"We will come back" she smiled at the saleswoman who was watching them with a slight grin. "J-just one question - do you have - Georgiana, do let go of me! - do you have some jar tongs? This kind of thing to lift..."

"Just behind you" the woman pointed out. "You are definitely going to have a very busy week, I see."

"Oh, you have no idea" Elizabeth confirmed, pulling out her purse. "No idea."

 

#

 

The house was still standing, the windows were gleaming, the girls were in the thick of it, sitting with the group of students in the kitchen, peeling the apples like crazy. There was a station in the corner where two persons were washing the apples (rather carefully), another one for two checking the apples for spots and then a long table of people peeling, cleaning, coring and cutting up the apples, with bowls being sent down the table, where large pots were waiting and Mrs Reynolds was overseeing the apples being mixed with sugar and slowly turned into pie filling.

Their offering of sugar and glassware was received with enthusiasm, but the peelers were apparently the most important purchase they had made, as some people exchanged their knives for peelers with alacrity as soon as the new tools were washed. Several trips to the car were made and soon she and Georgiana were shooed out of the kitchen with an order to have some rest and not worry about anything.

"Dad said you should just go upstairs and try to relax. No checking on the progress, no micromanagement" Mina pushed Elizabeth out and in the direction of the stairs. "We will be bringing you your tea in a moment and all you have to do is relax and code. We will manage everything."

She grinned to Georgiana, who was already up the first flight of stairs.

"Fine, fine... Just..."

"No just. And Dad said to make sure you don't try to go to the cellars to check on the storage or _anything_. You have work to do and are going to be provided with all needed resources. Starting with tea. In ten minutes. Up, up. We stay down here and we'll help with the cleanup and everything."

"And yes, we did our homework and our stuff is packed for Monday" added Rose from the door. "And Mom, you should put on these headphones, because I will be booting Mina out in like half an hour for her practice session with aunt Georgiana and if you don't want to spoil the surprise for herself..."

"OK, OK! I'm going! I'm going!"

She exchanged glances with Georgiana, who simply rolled her eyes and disappeared in her room.

 

####

 

Sunday morning was full of noises from the general direction of the kitchen and some more from the girls' room, but in their bedroom, they were resting, warm and content. He hated the fact that he was about to shatter that peace, but there were two more points to be discussed...

"Liz," he nudged her shoulder. "Liz?"

"Mmm?" she raised her eyes from the book in front of her.

"Liz, we have to..." he sighed. "We have to talk about money. I know it's a touchy topic..."

"Touchy?"

"Painful?"

She snorted and rolled her eyes.

"Now, it would be best if we signed..."

"William!"

"Just... please, listen to me?"

She had set the book aside and sat up, drawing a cardigan around her shoulders.

"It would be best if we signed a prenup. I know you weren't happy with the last one, although I'm not sure what it was... but, for clarity, I asked my lawyer to prepare a good draft, so you can have a look. We can discuss each item separately then and you can tell me what you want to change."

"No," she said quietly. "You will tell me with your own words. I need to hear it from you."

He looked up at her shaking shoulders and laid what he hoped was a calming hand on one of them.

"Fine. Not a problem. It's not very complex, so..." he trailed off, tracing a pattern on her forearm. "The house is maintained from an investment fund. It had been established by my grandfather and is quite self-sustaining by now, so unless the international trade crashes in some spectacular way, Pemberley doesn't need a penny from our everyday incomes. The grounds are supported by a foundation that uses the gardens to maintain certain rare flowers and invites classes of gardeners for hands-on experience in spring and in summer. We don't sell - well, not yet - the produce or the flowers, of course, but they are used in the house - like everything from the orchard or the herb garden. And, of course, we decorate the house with the flowers, in the season. There is also a separate account used for all the everyday house expenses, including anything bought on a larger scale, like the furniture or bulk amounts of supplies. This part is, I hope, obvious - we need to sign this in order to ensure that under no circumstances are your private resources being used for the estate purposes, taxes or any other matter. I don't want you to be importuned by some idiot who decides that they can claim your money is somehow part of the estate assets. Now, the new house has been separated from the original grounds and will have its own address, plot number and so on. I've set up a separate account for the upkeep and estate matters, so again, in case there is some kind of mishap, a wrong calculation of any sorts, none of us would get inconvenienced by having our private money blocked..."

"Will?"

"Mhm?"

"What are you talking about?"

"The prenup...?"

"But..." she sat up straighter and looked at him, a deep frown marring her forehead. "But you say the account for the house has been set up by your grandfather..."

"Quite definitely. The lawyers can dig up the original document if you wish to see it..."

He saw her lips trembling, pulling into an unhappy bow.

"But, this means it was already in place thirteen years ago...?" her voice was now shaking, too.

"Absolutely. This part is copied almost verbatim from that old prenup, nothing changes here."

"B..." she squeezed her eyes shut. "But why..."

"Liz?" he abandoned the thick file on the floor to grasp her shaking hands. "Elizabeth, what is wrong?"

"That's not what I was supposed to sign" she managed finally. "I remember, there was a passage about me contributing to the upkeep in an equal manner..."

" _What?!_ "

 

#

 

It took a while for him to calm down.

Yes, he believed her implicitly.

Yes, he trusted her recall.

No, he couldn't imagine what Aunt Catherine might have been thinking. Well, apart from the obvious. And, well, she did succeed, bloody meddling...

No, he couldn't forgive himself for not having made sure Elizabeth had read what he had brought home from the lawyer's office.

Apparently, either Anne or her mother were sneaky enough to replace the dry, but quite agreeable document with something so inflammatory Elizabeth just couldn't stand it. Considering the state of the both of them at the time (what with her not sleeping the nights through and him... not as appreciative of her efforts as he should have been) they never actually discussed it. They just argued, in little biting exchanges, never really _saying_ what they meant. And, in retrospective, they both had a talent for, in equal measures, not talking in a straightforward manner and hearing what was not being said.

Now, they ended up on the bed, with him half-lying, propped on the headboard and Elizabeth curled up on top of him, shivering just a bit. A thick afghan was pulled over the both of them and he held onto her with both hands.

"How... How are we going to _ever_ be free of them? This is never going to end. Every time I think we are finally done and... something like this happens. How can we actually live our lives normally? Not to mention dealing with other members of our families who can't stand the very idea of an _us_..."

"Well, of all the toxic people, you've managed to pacify your parents rather effectively, aunt Catherine and Anne are in custody and I don't see Lydia stirring herself to come up here."

"Now without betraying herself to Jane first, no."

"If uncle Harry decides to grumble, Richard is determined to terrorise him into silence, if not acceptance. The only real risk I can foresee is your sister Kitty trying to emasculate me with an ice-cream scoop. She always seemed a bit too... Intense."

She hugged him a bit closer.

"I think we will be fine," he gathered her in a tighter embrace. "As long as we have the girls and they are fine with us as _us_ , we should do exactly as it fits us, not someone else."

"Alright," she sighed "tell me the rest."

There were several more special accounts linked to his name that were set up de facto for business or estate purposes, from the employee salary fund to the separate account just for the maintenance of antique decorations of the interior of the house.

"Now, your own money - whichever source of them - should be completely safe from any kind of company or house related catastrophes, and I will ask an accountant and a lawyer to manage our tax returns, just to make sure we are not risking you losing out on this whole marriage business. I hope you don't mind that, but with the amounts we are talking about I'd much rather have a professional do that, truly."

He felt her holding her breath, but then she nodded.

"It would be good, yeah," she said finally. "I have always been uneasy when doing my own taxes, especially if I had multiple sources of income... I know most grownups figure it out around their second year in a paid job..." she shrugged.

"No worries. This is a very nice partnership they have, a tax advisory for slightly complicated cases. They helped three years ago when Georgiana got awarded compensation money for a copyright infringement some magazine that had printed her article without credits or a proper payment... Well, anyway. They are good and they don't expect the customer to know everything about the law..."

They sat in silence for a moment, but he felt her growing antsy.

"There is more" she suggested.

"Yes, oh perceptive one. I asked them to add a paragraph on the rules if you are ever employed in any of the family businesses - because Pemberley is a business, too, after all - to make sure your salary or income from that source is, again, your own and separate from any cost or profit the initiative would produce."

"So..." she licked her lips. "That's it?"

"More or less. There is some stuff regarding what will happen depending on which of us dies first and so on, but..."

His lips were suddenly and very pleasantly shut with a kiss.

"Don't," she said simply. "I don't even want to consider _that_. Let me read the whole thing, but don't mention _this_ aloud. Understood?"

He nodded slowly, mesmerised by the way she moved, straddling his legs and leaning over him.

"One more thing..." he managed to murmur. "The house accounts... All the adults have cards - and there is one for you, waiting at the bank... tomorrow..."

"Mhm, tomorrow" she nodded absently, plucked the papers from his hand, replacing them haphazardly on a side table and removed his glasses. "Right now, I find myself in a sudden state of need of some reconfirmation..."

He was more than willing to oblige.

 

####

 

 

Mina felt a little disappointed with the lack of any interesting festivities on the 5th of November, but it was not going to spoil her mood. She had spent a wonderful Saturday morning on helping Dad (together with Rose) on their big surprise and then the lunchtime and long into the afternoon with the students, who, after a while, lost all their inhibitions and started sharing some rather risque stories, forgetting about the presence of the "little ears" at the table. This whole thing turned out to be unexpectedly entertaining for a weekend-long session of housework and, together with Rose, they had even had a chance to explore parts of the basement normally closed to them.

Mid-afternoon Rose had sent her upstairs, as promised, and she spent the rest of the day practising the songs they had chosen and then, joined by Rose, cleaning their working room.

Sunday from dawn was again spent in the kitchen, but she only managed to breathe with relief once Dad showed up and announced he and Mom would be leaving for a short trip "to air their heads" and then could be seen packing Mom into the car and driving away.

"Good" Mrs Reynolds sighed. "Can't be sure she won't find it by accident. Now you two can run upstairs and straighten everything and clean your bathroom! And prepare your outfits for Saturday, because I'd rather not find out one of them needs mending two hours before the ceremony. And neither would your mother!"

Well, the outfits were clean and ready, hanging on the door of their wardrobe in their protective sleeves, their rooms were reasonably clean (but not too much, to avoid drawing suspicions) and there was no trace anywhere of the preparations that took them the entire half of Saturday.

"We could go and see how the group in the gardens is doing" Rose suggested. "As long as we don't get ourselves roped into picking sloe or whatever, I think I'd rather be outside."

Mina shook her head and took out the tablet.

"I need to practise the carol" she sighed. "I mean, I love it, but with the songs for the wedding and everything..."

"Well, you need to practise the wedding songs, too. And now you have the chance, Mom is out and aunt G is home. And there is only one week left..." Rose grimaced. "I think I will be happy as a ringbearer. I just have to show up, not lose them, stand still and not smile too stupidly. No rehearsal or practice needed."

Mina shook her head and put the tablet away.

"Yeah, the wedding songs are a higher priority. I wish... Maybe I just shouldn't do that carol thing? Isn't it a bit too much? I mean, people may start thinking I'm some kind of a show-off, if I sign up for everything like that."

Rose's arms went around her and she found herself hugged tightly.

"You are not a show-off, you just like singing. So you sing. If anyone says you are showing off, well, they are jealous. I used to take a lot of time to ride Star and there were some people complaining about me getting awards and stuff - not that many, but..." she shrugged.

"Why aren't you doing anything this year? I mean, I think there is an event like, every weekend..."

Rose rolled her eyes and flopped back onto her bed.

"First, I was away all summer _and_ September. Then you were sick. Then we were all kind of running around and trying to understand stuff. Then there was your singing competition. And suddenly we are preparing for the wedding and still trying to pick up things at school and Dad had all these problems with the company... I was mostly riding her around the grounds, to give her some exercise, but I don't think I will have much time for practising anyway. Next weekend it's the wedding, then it will be all the craziness with Christmas preparation and stuff, so..."

"Rose" she patted her sister's hands. "Once they are done with the wedding craziness, you have to talk to Dad about it. Because like it is, you are... I don't know. Losing this. I mean it. I'm not a particular fan of Star, or any horse, but she is _yours_ and you should be riding her, because it's your thing and you have to keep at it. I know it's more hassle than singing - I mean, I can sing anytime I like, no preparation needed - but you have to make time for her. And Dad is the only one who can help you with it, right?"

She felt Rose nodding against her shoulder.

"So you have to organise it. Or get him to help you with it. Once this all calms down, go and talk to him if there are any events this year or next that you can prepare for. I will be the first one to admit I know _nothing_ about this stuff, but you two _do_. So you two discuss and find something. Are we clear?"

Rose drew a shuddering breath.

"Clear," she breathed softly. "I'll talk to Dad. But you keep practising, with aunt Georgiana, with Mom or by yourself, but you keep singing, clear?"

"Clear."

"Twins, not clones."

"Twins, not clones."


	28. We'll build the fire high - p5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A visit to a bank, a rant, some shopping, some gossip, all preparations slowly slowly moving forward.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This post covers the week up to 10th of November, Friday.  
> (if you notice any inconsistencies or weirdness, let me know in the comments or ping me on tumblr - I am having a spot of cold this week, so I may be in less than optimal condition.
> 
>  
> 
> [You can find me on tumblr here.](https://srebrnafh.tumblr.com/)

A visit to the lawyer's office was needed to sign the final version of the prenup, but they were done before Elizabeth could work herself into more nerves than the situation deserved. She did feel an attack of self-consciousness when the woman had to prompt her for her signature and the pen managed to just slip out of her fingers--it was such a stereotypical poor little weak woman behaviour she could have kicked herself.

They signed, they shook hands with the notary, they smiled, they left as soon as they could and William's warm hand was resting on her waist all that time, reminding her although she is a big, self-sufficient girl, even big girls had to be reasonable when getting involved with people who had more money at their disposal than some minor countries. And if signing the bloody prenup in the presence of a supercilious lawyer who smiled at her in a very patronising fashion was what had to be done, then she would do that. Or, in fact, did that.

The bank was easy in comparison. There was an extension of the account contract to be signed, which William did, as the main owner, then Elizabeth was issued a card with her name and "PEMBERLEY" printed on it - no other logos or outward means of identifying it - and she signed her own additional contract and received a sealed envelope with the PIN number. Everything went much smoother than any bank visit she had ever experienced before _and_ the bank employees were not watching her suspiciously.

"Everyone at the house has one" William explained with a shrug. "If you buy anything with it, remember to keep the receipt, that's it. Once a month an accountant goes through them and checks the state of the account against the receipts. I used to lose them all the time, but then..." he smiled guiltily. "She made me reimburse the house for the ones I couldn't prove. Anyway, it's usually Brian who does any big shopping, like building materials or bulk groceries. This is... just a precaution, in case you are in the town and someone asks you to buy something bigger."

"Ah, so the jars and everything, that's why Georgiana insisted on paying...?"

"She has hers, yes."

"But if we start the apple juice thing..."

"I will ask the lawyer for advice on that one - we could make it a separate business working on the estate or part of the bigger whole."

They walked to the car in companionable silence, Elizabeth's fingers encased in William's larger hand as she watched the town around her - quiet on that Monday morning - trying to learn it anew from the pedestrian point of view.

"Things have changed," she ventured cautiously.

"M-hm. Big world came to Lambton and it's here to stay."

"Well, it may be seen as a good thing."

"Depending what it brings. Some things are fine" he nodded to the opposite side of the street, where a coffee shop was displaying the first signs of Christmas offer. "But of some others we get too much."

Elizabeth frowned, looking around as they crossed the street, heading towards the car.

"What do you mean, too much?"

William waved in the direction they came from.

"There used to be one of everything here. One grocery shop, one shoe shop, one whatever. Now there are dozens of the same thing. I never know where to go to buy something."

"Well, competition is _good_. I, for one, am quite happy that there is more than one dressmaker in Lambton," she smiled at him, but his face was rather serious.

"Fine. Let there be two, maybe three. Everyone picks one they like, done. But why twenty shops with tourist equipment? And each of them selling the same, just in different colours?"

She grimaced.

"Well, that does seem wasteful."

"Not to mention absolute... surfeit of cheap clothing stores. I'm not sure there are enough teenagers in whole county to use up all these clothes. I'd rather have something else in the place of at least half of them."

"Can't help it, unless you know the owner and can convince them to give the shop a boot," she opened the door on her side before he reached it, so they found themselves suddenly off balance and much closer then before.

And William was blushing. Just a bit.

She glanced at him, at the buildings around them, back at him. Then she looked up, at the sky, seeking some kind of sign from higher powers, whatever they may be.

"William."

"Liz."

"Do I even want to know?"

He snorted.

"You _always_ want to know."

"Unfortunately. How long has this been going on?"

"Ever since I managed to find seven discount clothing stores in one stretch of a street, one of which had replaced my favourite ice-cream parlour."

"Apparently you didn't eat enough ice-cream," she quipped, sliding into her seat and pulling her seatbelt down. "So, what did you do?"

He shrugged and smiled innocently.

"Nothing yet, not really. But when the time comes for some of them to renegotiate the lease..."

She leaned back with a moan as he started the engine.

"Is it to late for me to just run? Did I get involved with the mafia don of Derbyshire? Don Williamo?"

He show her such a hurt look she laughed.

"I am perfectly serious," he said softly after taking two turns. "This is an investment, Lizzy. Not money-wise. Well, that too, but nothing I expect a huge revenue from. This is an investment in local society. I want people to stay here, to _like_ living in Lambton. I don't want them to move away after they graduate, to run away because the town has no prospects. I want our daughters to have a place to live in, not just visit occasionally when they fly in from some remote corner of the Earth. Or, if they would - because who am I to limit them - I don't want them to come back home and think 'oh, it looks just like everywhere else'. I want them to be able to go up Matlock Street and say 'Oh, see, the tart shop, I love their little pies' or 'I bought a butterfly net in this toy shop' or..." he shrugged. "I probably sound like a maniac."

She sighed.

"No, love," she patted his left hand. "Like a romantic."

"That doesn't sound that bad" he smiled at her as they waited at red light.

"Just try not to make the error most Romantic poets seemed to be prone to."

"That is?"

"Don't contract consumption. That makes for an attractive paleness of cheek, but is rather exhausting."

"I will take your recommendation into consideration, milady."

"That's all I can ask for."

They drove back home slowly, watching people still working in the fields and between the trees, collecting what they could - Pemberley looked the same, with the youngsters picking carefully every apple and pear, grounds crew covering the tree trunks for the winter and sowing the very last of fall rye.

For a moment, she thought of London. Busy streets, everyone looking down, trying to catch the bus, catch the tube, get here, get there, do the shopping, get home. Never really knowing anyone - and, in her case, pretending not to know anyone, in case the person turned out to be someone from the school - never connected, never tethered.

William was tethered. William _was_ Pemberley. He lived and breathed Derbyshire. He might not be talking like a lad from the countryside - usually - he might not be traipsing around the estate in huge wellies and a tweed jacket patched on the elbows, but he was from this place, he was so much from this specific spot on Earth it sometimes hurt.

When they had been walking down the street, people had smiled at them. Every now and then someone had nodded in greeting and Will had nodded back to them. The woman in the coffee shop knew Will's favourite brand of coffee, the man in the bakery knew what to pack when Elizabeth mentioned Mrs Reynolds, and William walked down the streets as if he knew every step and every stone on these pavements.

Well, he probably did, didn't he?

William was home.

William was _her home_.

She blinked away sudden tears.

"Hey, hey, what's wrong?" he brushed the moisture away from her cheeks and she noticed they were already on the drive up to the house. "Come here, Lizzy. What happened?"

He pulled her closer, until her face was buried in the lapels of his coat.

"Nothing. I'm stupid."

"How dare you say such things about my future wife."

"I am. Like, a complete idiot. I mean, all this... this crap, because I didn't believe in us. In you. And you... I..." she shook her head. "I love you, you know?"

"I think you may have mentioned that once or twice before, yes."

"I have to tell you, every day. Whatever happens. I love you, Will. I love you so much it sometimes feels like I can't hold it together. Sometimes I think I've got it, you know? Like I know everything, I'm in total control, all fine, system check, all green... and then you come and say something so hopelessly romantic like you just did and you blow all my carefully gathered restraint apart and I'm sitting there, trying to understand what the hell am I doing, because the is no way in the world this is real. I must be dreaming."

"Liz..."

"I can understand a lot. A lot a lot. I mean, the house, the estate, the grounds, the foundation - all is fine. But sneakily buying real estate in town because you don't like the shops that are in these buildings...!"

He held her even tighter to his warmth.

"It was... it was all for Rose. I was thinking only about Rose. But all that time, it was for the both of them. All for our little girls."

 

####

 

Evie had no other work queued after Elizabeth's dress was finished, so once they had confirmed that everything fitted exactly as it should and two neckerchiefs were produced for Mina and Rose, she was available for a coffee and some gossip. And Elizabeth revelled in it. There were very few people (apart from three of her own sisters and Georgiana) she could just _talk_ to - and Evie, being saddled with a mother disappointed with any choice she had made up to date and a father who couldn't care less, was quite sympathetic towards Elizabeth's strained relationship with her parents.

She was an attentive audience and her eyes became round as coins when Elizabeth retold (for what seemed the tenth time) the story of her daughters switching places.

"And now you are here, of all the towns in England?"

"Yep."

"And of all the shops in this town..."

"Yep. Didn't like the bridal store up the street. Even their shop dummies seemed to look down at me."

"And, I suppose, Berta being and inch shorter than you helped to convince you we'd be willing to work with someone of less than runway model height."

Elizabeth only laughed and nodded. They ordered some more coffee and another slice of cake each (Evie wasn't one to deny herself sweets and Elizabeth knew she would probably use up any sugar she ate just by the sheer amount of walking one did on an old country estate to get anywhere) and chatted about everything and nothing - Elizabeth's work, Evie's involvement in the community centre, Elizabeth's recent book purchases, Evie's holiday plans (mostly keeping away from her parents) and the general neighbourhood and potential entertainment to be had in the coming weeks, up to and including the Christmas fair, where Evie was planning to have a booth.

Elizabeth sipped her latte and groaned in sheer relaxation. She didn't have to hurry back home. There was nothing more left to do. The house was clean, there were rooms prepared for everyone - including Kitty and Ted and the girls - the harvest was winding down, with Derek and his employees hard at work every afternoon after school, Georgiana and Mina had been glad to see the back of her and to get back to their practising, Rose was riding her horse with William... And the code was finished and currently in review, thankfully. Even the need for shopping was mostly reduced to "more jars!", which one of the farm hands went to purchase in Matlock that very morning, because local shops had been wiped clean of glassware of any size.

That though brought to mind one more tiny piece of shopping she _could_ do now that she had someone except Mina (very seriously busy Mina who said "just get something for _yourself_ , Mom!" when pushing her out of the door) to accompany her. She smiled at Evie and pulled out the gift cards the girls had won at the competition.

"What would you say if I asked you to give me some professional advice while I go shopping?"

Evie snatched the cards out of her hand and frowned at her with narrowed eyes.

"The hobby shop... But they don't normally have gift cards, do they? Where... The cosplay? It was _you_? Oh, both of... I was watching, but I didn't hear who won, and... Oh, they were wearing wigs! Did _you_ make these dresses?"

Elizabeth shrugged but failed to hide a small smile.

"Then why didn't you just... you know... sew this one yourself?" Evie made an uncertain gesture. "Girl, you have the skill...!"

She cringed.

"I don't have a dummy. I know it sounds funny, but I... I can sew stuff for the girls, because it doesn't need all that much shaping, but you should know best it's hard to sew for someone without taking _this_ into account" she pointed her thumb towards her decolletage. "And I would need a properly shaped dummy for that. Also, are you complaining about me commissioning a dress at your shop, Evie Martin? Are you crazy, or what?"

Evie choked on her coffee.

"No, no, absolutely not! Commission away! I just meant... Damn, I saw that Elsa dress and it was _fab_. You do anything else? Like, I don't know, embroidery?"

Elizabeth rolled her eyes.

"How much free time _do_ you have?" she pulled out her tablet and opened the picture gallery.

 

#

 

Evie in the craft shop was probably even worse than Elizabeth herself. They wound each other up, pointing out yarns, ribbons and buttons, giggling over sizes of knitting needles ("you could kill a vampire with this one!") and oohing and aahing at the fat quarters of patterned fabric.

"I have barely touched my machine since we moved - well, I did sew the dresses, yes - but I still have these two absolutely grand quilts planned... Oh" she deflated in sudden realisation and sat at the small table on the side of the shop. "Oh."

"Liz? Something wrong?" Evie joined her at the table, plunking their overflowing basket on the floor.

Elizabeth bit her lip.

"Kind of. Do you know _any_ place around here that would have a quilting machine? I mean, not to buy, but to rent by the hour, or... I don't know. Well, not that the quilts are done in any measure, but..."

"Lizzy Bennet, you _are_ rambling."

"I suppose I am" she shook her head. "In London I used to rent the machines in one of craft centres, they have pay-per-time scheme for casual quilters, but here...?"

Evie frowned.

"You mean these machines with a bench, ones that you can screw the whole quilt in? With the rollers and everything?"

"Preferably, but I can also use a normal one, just with a lot of space under the arm. It will be harder and not so flexible when it comes to the pattern, but won't look a gift horse in the mouth."

Evie pulled out her phone and thumbed through the pictures.

"Large space under the arm, right? Like this one?" she turned her screen to Elizabeth.

"Yeah, sure, one of these would work fine. It will be a bit of a hassle to roll up the whole thing, but it would work. Is this a workshop somewhere here in the town? Can I see it?"

Evie leaned back.

"Well... That depends."

"Evie!"

"Are you afraid to visit a cellar of iniquity?"

Elizabeth pressed her lips into a thin line and looked at her friend patiently.

"The storage room below the shop. This isn't the first sewing establishment in this building, you see. My great aunt - she is the one who bequeathed that house to me, I think it had to be solely to thumb her nose at my mother - used to sew... guess what."

"Evie..."

"Quilted. Comforters."

 

####

 

Rose was watching her sister protectively. Not that Mina needed protection, as such - she was doing much better socially at school and her integration with their homeroom class was seamless - but sometimes the fifteen minutes of difference between them grew into an unsurmountable distance and Rose felt So Much Older!

Mina was enthusiastic. Mina got involved in stuff. Singing contest was one thing, but that whole Christmas concert thing? Who would volunteer for that?

(Apart from aunt Georgiana, that is, and she was in love with Miss Yang, so she probably kind of had to/wanted to.)

Poetry contest.

Poster about your favourite book.

Not to mention Christmas tree decorations and Italian club.

Rose felt... jaded.

For her, it was all _so last year_. Well, except for the Italian club. She wondered what they would be doing - cooking pasta?

She sighed and checked the time on her mobile. She had been waiting for at least twenty minutes already...

"Rose!" her sister sounded winded. "You will never guess...!"

Rose sighed and listened attentively.

Teddy happened by, stood with them for a moment, holding Mina's hand, listening to her story about an event that was to be held in the library, some kind of reading aloud competition for the benefit of the youngest pupils - the same as the year previous, of course, but as Rose rolled her eyes, she saw Teddy looking at her sister with a small, sad smile and then raising his glance to Rose and shrugging, just slightly, grinning.

 _Ah_.

Mina had never had _that_. Her school her never been _welcoming_.

Nobody could say that Lambton high school was a place that fostered all and any talent and supported every need, but Rose herself had experienced Mina's London school - if only for three weeks - and it had sucked.

_No wonder she is excited about every tiny thing._

It was the same as at the school dance - Rose was an old hand with these, two or three a year made her inured to the excitement of them - but her sister was living through a new experience a day, just because of the fact that the school existed and was moderately inoffensive to its students.

And Teddy saw it, too.

They had become used to the luxury of a society that - to varied degree, but still - accepted them as they were.

Mina was still discovering it anew.

That was... fine.

Rose watched her sister bid Teddy goodbye with a hug and followed her out of the school, still marvelling at the small but important differences between them.

In fact, sometimes looking at everything through Mina's eyes made Rose appreciate what she had even more.

 

#

 

The rest of the week was deceptively calm. They checked their wedding outfits daily, just to make sure everything was in order. On Tuesday, late in the evening, Mom brought the dress home, carefully wrapped in opaque plastic, together with two bulging bags of craft materials which made Mina almost salivate and two neckerchiefs of soft draping, deep wine-red material that Mom asked them to add to their sets for Saturday.

Dad had fortunately found something he needed Mom to urgently have a look at and Mina deftly offered the two of them would take care of the craft purchases - "put them away so that the kids won't find them when they come" - and Rose sighed in relief when Mom took them up on that offer and followed Dad into his study.

Next days were mostly filled with additional shopping for jars (Mom actually suggested they should set up their own glassworks next year and Dad for some reason found it extremely funny), stewing more apples and pears than Rose had ever considered possible, Derek's people crowding the kitchen and helping Mrs Reynolds to put the storage in the cellars to rights, Brian delivering flat packages of shelving units from IKEA in Sheffield, Mina practising with aunt Georgiana like a woman possessed, Rose practising on a printout of the guitar fretboard and various last minute adjustments that were commonly needed before any large family gathering, including enormous amounts of linens washing and obsessive scrubbing of all surfaces that were deemed too dirty by their progressively more and more frazzled housekeeper.

 

#

 

On Friday morning, when everything was as organised as possible and they were looking forward to seeing their cousins (Rose had to admit the little monsters had grown on her, if only a little bit), breakfast was quiet and sleepy. With aunt Georgiana sleeping in after working on some article until dawn, they sat four, nibbling slowly on their toast and scrambled eggs.

Dad was surreptitiously checking something on his mobile when a well-aimed balled-up napkin hit him in the face.

"Elizabeth!"

"Put that phone away and eat your breakfast" she pronounced regally. "What is so important?"

"Jonathan is badgering me for input about tile purchases. It is a bit early, but he claims we can get some great deals if we order now and in larger numbers..." he bit into his toast and chewed it slowly. "I mean I could tell him to just get generic white for everything, but wouldn't we want to put some colourful accents here and there? I don't want this to feel... utilitarian. If we are building this from scratch, we don't want to install something we won't like from the outset. I'd rather have it done later than hate the solution for twenty years."

"Well, for the one that nobody be actually using day to day, yes, I don't see an issue. Make it all white," Mom suggested with a shrug. "Ask Georgiana what she wants for hers and..." she nodded to the two of them. "Well, here they are, just collect their input."

Dad's eyes alighted on them and Rose elbowed Mina, who was overly focused on her cereal.

"What would you two like to have in your bathroom, hmm?" he raised an eyebrow in question. "All white? All pink?"

"Dad" Mina mumbled with reproach.

"All teal? Aqua? Plum and fuchsia?"

"William."

Rose glanced at Mina, who swallowed a mouthfull of cornflakes and finally asked "Can we get a kind of Marrakesh combination?"

Dad frowned.

"A Marrakesh...?"

"Like the mosaics?" Mina wiped her hands on a napkin and pulled out her phone. She typed something, swiped a few times and turned the screen towards Dad.

"So... blue, orange, yellow, black, white and red?" he bit his lip. "I hope you don't want literal mosaics, kitten."

"No, no. Just colour accents. Make..." Mina glanced at Rose, who just nodded. "Make everything white, but not like hospital white, just a bit off, like maybe a bit ivory. And add a line of this sea blue, and another of kind of rusty orange... I could draw this for you if it makes it easier."

Dad drained his coffee cup and leaned towards them.

"Could you make a model of it? I have this piece of software that I can model interior designs in. They say it has a nice base of all kinds of items you can use to build rooms..."

"You mean you have a 3D modelling software that you could use to design our bathroom? And I can play with it?"

Rose was torn between laughter at her father's expression at Mina's exuberance and worry. Her sister was going one day to just tear herself apart trying to follow too many interests at once.

"Well, I suppose you could, yes. Not like anyone else is using it, really. I mostly leave the modelling to the actual interior designers, but they installed a copy on my computer so I can show their suggestions to the customers, too..."

Mina quickly drained her teacup and swallowed the rest of her cereal.

"I'm done" she declared. "Can I see it today?"

Dad stammered.

"I don't have it on my laptop" he explained at last. "Just on the desktop at the office. And you two have school in less than an hour anyway, so..."

Mina honest to God pouted.

"No, definitely no. School first. Now, brush your teeth, collect your backpacks, take your lunch boxes from Mrs Reynolds and catch that bus, ladies."

"But...!"

"But me no buts, Mina. I won't let you go to the office and play with the program instead of going to school!"

Rose heard a suffering sigh from her little sister, but soon they were racing each other upstairs and crowding into the bathroom to grab their toothbrushes.

"School" Mina mumbled. "Overrated experience."

"No school, no Teddy" Rose reminded her kindly.

"Yeah, I know... But! 3D modelling software!"

"Later."

"But if I don't see it today...!"

"There will be time enough. Don't worry."

 

####

 

Having finished committing the code after the review and sending the invoice for a healthy sum, Elizabeth wandered downstairs on Friday around lunchtime and found Mrs Reynolds cleaning the main kitchen table with bleach and a stiff brush. Very carefully she disarmed the older woman, taking away her gloves and apron and pushed her into the rarely used armchair in the corner of the room, requesting that she stay there and, for goodness sake, stop trying to strip varnish from that poor tabletop.

"But what am I supposed to do now, Lizzy? There will be children coming and everyone..."

"Most of them had already been here" Elizabeth replied serenely. "And you are supposed to sit, breathe calmly and keep me company for the next two hours, so that I don't start fretting about tomorrow. Two of us panicking won't do any good."

"But, lovey, what are you doing?"

Elizabeth brushed her hair back and tied it away with a fat scrunchy.

"Baking the wedding cake, of course" she opened the cupboard where she had stored the baking chocolate bought online specifically for that occasion.

"Oh, dearie, but you should have ordered one! You should be relaxing right now, not... not bothering with _baking_!"

Elizabeth propped one hand on her hip and pointed the spatula at the older woman.

"William had ordered the rest of the food to be delivered, but the cake is _mine_. I relax this way. If I go upstairs and sit in our room, I'll start fretting about the dress and I'll do something idiotic like try to add something to it. Or I'll throw up due to nerves. That has been known to happen. I need to do something _manual_. It takes my mind off..." she waved at the ceiling. " _Him._ "

"What? William? Why would you be worried about Will, dearie?"

She shrugged, not finding the right words.

"Sometimes... Sometimes I'm still worried he... he will wake up tomorrow and understand what kind of terrible mistake he is doing and change his mind at the last moment. So, I need to be doing things or I will simply tear myself apart with nerves."

"Oh, Elizabeth..."

"I'm fine. Fine. Now, where is that darned mixer..."

She started the standing mixer and quickly put five yolks and the sugar into the bowl to be beaten into fluff, placed the chocolate in a bowl over hot water and set the oven to start heating. As the mixer was buzzing happily, she prepared the round tin, covering it with a thin layer of butter and dusting it with flour.

Once the cake was in the oven, the cherries were draining on the strainer, the gelatin was slowly dissolving and the mixer was now beating the whipping cream into proper stiffness, she allowed herself a moment of respite over a cup of tea prepared by Mrs Reynolds, who in that time had prepared a small lunch for the two of them.

"You shouldn't worry so. You won't sleep well and tomorrow you will look tired."

"The ceremony is in the afternoon" she dismissed the problem. "Even if I look like a death warmed over, Jane and Kitty will have no problem dealing with it. And I can't really _stop_ worrying. That's my default frame of mind. I always worry."

The sound made by the mixer changed and she sprinted towards it, but it was already too late.

"Damn" she watched as a handful of pieces of sweet butter gathered on the side of the bowl. "Good thing I bought a double backup amount or we'd be in trouble."

They moved the butter to a covered bowl - it was perfectly usable for cookies - and started on another pint of cream, fresh from the fridge, chilled and sweet. This one worked without an issue and soon Elizabeth had the cooled cake on the stand and started layering the cream on the top and the sides of it, piping a decorative row of rosettes at the bottom of the whole thing and decorating the top with cherries she had put aside earlier.

Once the cake was chilling in the fridge and all the bowls were set in the dishwasher, except for the chocolate melting one and the pan, Elizabeth took out the square marble slab she had kept - carefully covered - in one of the cupboards and a tray tray covered with a baking sheet.

"That doesn't make sense" Mrs Reynolds remarked from her corner. "But go on. I wish I knew what you were doing."

"Chocolate curls" Elizabeth smiled and fetched the thermometer and more chocolate from her stash. "I want them to be perrrfectly shaped and this is the way I do it."

She brought the chocolate to the correct temperature and, once sure of its tempering, poured it on the slab. Spreading it with a spatula to get an even layer took time, but she wanted this to be done correctly in the first attempt, so she was patient.

Once the chocolate started setting, she fished out another bit of equipment and started to scrape the curls off the marble, storing them in a prepared baking tin. Once she ran out of the dark chocolate, she repeated the same operation with a bar of milk one, and then, again, with a white.

The curls were then transferred to the fridge and Elizabeth suddenly found herself without an occupation for her hands.

Which immediately started shaking.

_Damn._

She forced herself to focus on cleaning the marble and filling the dishwasher with the rest of the equipment. Once the table was washed, last remnants of the chocopalooza removed with warm water and the thermometer cleaned and stored away, she sat at the table and allowed herself to have a moment of quiet panic.

She didn't hear Mrs Reynolds leaving and she never noticed William arriving until he was sitting next to her and pulling her to his warm side.

They sat like this, she curled up against him, eyes closed, breath slowly evening out, head growing heavier and heavier with every breath, calm and soft and close.

That is, until the main door opened with a crash of wood against plaster and Rose could be heard shouting about guests incoming and was there anyone home, or were they supposed to handle all the aunts and uncles by themselves?

Even then, despite the fact that she straightened nervously, William held her for a moment longer, cupping her hip and her shoulder in his big hands, his lips pressed into her hair.

"Everything will be fine" he said softly. "We will be fine. I'm not changing my mind. Nobody is changing their mind. We are here, right now, us, our home, our family. This is as it's supposed to be. Unless, of course, _you_ are having second thoughts?"

She looked up at him, eyes wide.

"Never."

"Then let's go upstairs and greet our guests."

 

#

 

Supper was lasagne - done in advance, easily heated, satisfactory to almost everyone (except for Evelyn, who begged not to be fed 'slimy noodles' and managed to wheedle some fried sausage out of Mrs Reynolds) and in quantity sufficient to fill all empty bellies and still leave a lot - useful if someone felt peckish during the night.

Washing the children (operation divided into two bathrooms for easier handling) went quicker than ever before, as if it was a practised exercise. Soon Rose and Mina were corrupting Jackie with something they had found on Netflix and other children, although grudgingly, allowed themselves to be put to bed and fell asleep, letting their enterprising parents set up discreet electronic nannies and leave the slumbering younger generation (with the exception of the oldest three) in order to seek some entertainment of their own.

 

#

 

Elizabeth had led the ladies downstairs to the library, where she had already prepared a space for all of them to sit, some not-very-strong cider and some card games, all setting a perfect scene for an unusually calm and ordered hen night.

None of them wished for a more energetic type of celebration and a few rounds of one game or another (and Elizabeth had a large choice of these) seemed a perfect idea.

Until, that is, the moment when Mary got stuck standing up during a game of "Voodoo" and came back down holding a book she had fetched from one of the shelves.

"I dare you" she said in an over-the-top serious tone. "I dare you to a reading challenge."

Georgiana frowned at the idea from over the cards she was putting into their little compartments in the box.

"What do you mean?"

"Each of us reads ten... No, fifteen sentences aloud, with proper emotion and everything. Who laughs the first in each round, takes a drink. This cider is barely stronger than apple juice, so we won't get very tight, but it may be a bit of fun."

Elizabeth twisted lazily in her comfortable spot, trying to see the cover.

"What is it?" Kitty pulled the book closer to her. "'In The Safety of Her Nest'? What the hell is this?"

Elizabeth felt her face growing red. Very, very red.

"Um," Georgiana stuttered. "It's... it's William's."

"William reads regency bodice rippers? Oh dear, it even has an appropriately idiotic cover with a busty milkmaid..."

"No," Elizabeth groaned dropping her face into her hands. "He _writes_ them."

Her future sister-in-law was an absolute lightweight.

Kitty turned to her in astounded silence.

Mary surveyed the volume she was holding as if it had morphed into a dead lizard.

"He _what_?"

"He writes them, when he is bored or annoyed," Georgiana provided hesitantly. "I, well, uh, I _of course_ have never read them, but..."

Elizabeth just hoped they would fall asleep quickly. Right that minute would have been the best.

"Come on, Lizzy, live a little" Jane prodded her side. "Let the others see what kind of fantasies your boy harbours."

"I'm not sure I should be reading this," Georgiana cringed. "It's embarrassing."

"OK, _we_ will read it. All _you_ have to do is keep a straight face. Ready, ladies?"

Jane topped up all the glasses with cider and they sat around, leaning on the cushions Elizabeth had gathered there in preparation for that little event.

"Alright, from the beginning, or random page?"

"Random!" Kitty made the choice for them.

"Fine, random" Mary closed her eyes and opened the book somewhat in the middle. "Here. From this spot" she jabbed the page with her outstretched finger and finally opened her eyes. "Fun! Now, listen."

Mary coughed, clearing her throat, and began reading.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Edit: All the recipes for everything that Elizabeth bakes are getting posted on [my blog](https://fanfik.wordpress.com/category/pride-and-prejudice/double-pride-double-trouble-add-ons/), including this cake, too (sometime today).


	29. We'll build the fire high - p6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The hen party, the stag night, some games, a lazy Saturday morning and... to the Town Hall! :)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning for people of delicate sensibilities: this chapter contains some of William's writings and some inappropriate usage of food.  
> YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.

Elizabeth had been lucky. The part that she had been randomly assigned was more soulful than anything else. It was, in fact, a bit of a tear-jerker. She managed to read it aloud with aplomb and without losing her absolutely serious countenance, despite the fact that she had to stop herself from smiling at the flowery language.

 

####

 

> _Her drowsy, half-closed eyes tracked his movements as he gathered the necessary items from the small table. His fingers deftly sorted through all the toiletry implements in the drawers, finally finding what he was seeking. As he approached the bed, she drew herself up, trying to cover her naked body with the loose sheet, but he was not having that. Depositing his supplies on the pillow next to her sweetly curving hip, he caught her wrist in an unmovable hold and moved the white fabric aside, baring her skin to his heated gaze._
> 
> _'Let me, my love,' he murmured, drawing her arm up and away from where she held it against her side. With a featherlike touch he traced the angry prints of the brute's hands on her ivory pale skin. She turned her face away, covering her shame. 'Now, now. I will be gentle. But this must be done.'_
> 
> _Thick herbal cream covered the worst of the bruises and muslin squares were applied to hold the medicine in place. Her ribs were tightly bandaged with strips of linen and bound, her slip lowered over her head and her modesty restored, as much as it could be._
> 
> _'Rest easy now, dear one' he kissed her hair, breathing in the sweet perfume of her soaps and lavender oil. 'I will avenge your injuries and come back to you. You will never have to worry for your safety again.'_
> 
> _Little did he know that in a month, he would be imprisoned in the dungeons of a far-away castle and his dearest girl would be lost to him forever._
> 
>  

####

 

"Dear me, that was intense," Kitty fanned herself. "Well, at least he knows how to write something rather... sweet. I must have underestimated him, I suppose."

"Well, this was written eight years ago," Jane drained her glass and reached for the bottle again. "I mean, he had already, you know, matured since the time you've met him at our wedding. Anyway. Not that I'm going to be nosy, but I _am_ curious. Does he _ever_ talk to you like _that_?" she turned her gaze to Elizabeth. "Because, you know. If he does... I mean, not my business, but, well--" Jane frowned and sighed. "I'm not sure what I wanted to say."

"Just put away that glass and nobody is going to get hurt," Mary plucked the stem of Jane's wineglass from her limp fingers. "There, water for you from now on."

"Water is boring," Jane sighed, but drank obediently.

Elizabeth passed the book on to Kitty, who squeezed her eyes shut, picked the place with her nail, flipped it open, poked the spot on the page and opened her eyes.

And gasped.

All of them, including Georgiana, turned to her with expectant smiles.

Kitty sat down, blindly patted the floor around her pillow for her glass and drank half of it in one swig.

"Kit?"

"Give me a second."

Kitty blinked, shook herself off and looked up at them.

"Top up your glasses, ladies. And mine, too."

 

####

 

> _'Now, you've been so patient and sweet, my dear, lovely girl, you deserve your promised treat. Just sit tight for a minute and let me... feed it... to you...' his voice dropped into a growl, sending ripples of excitement down her spine._
> 
> _'Oooh, yes, James, please, let me have it!' she waited impatiently in his loving hold. 'Now, please...!'_
> 
> _His gaze on her was like a brand and she could feel the warmth of his searching eyes surveying all that belonged to him._
> 
> _'Mine' he growled, slowly peeling off layers and layers that covered the very object of her overheated imagination._
> 
> _'Jaa-mees' she wailed, her hands straining to escape as he applied his dexterous fingers to the task. 'I want it! I have to... James! I need you to...'_
> 
> _'Oh, do be quiet, Madelaine' he murmured against the slender column of her neck. 'You will get exactly what you deserve, nothing more, nothing less. And I will be the one to give. It. To. You.'_
> 
> _He punctuated his words by tightening his hold on her thin, corseted waist and bringing her well-developed derriere in close contact with his blazing hot staff of life._
> 
> _'Now, be a good girl, open wide,' he ordered with a growl._
> 
> _'Jame...'_
> 
> _Her protest was quieted by an object filling her mouth and as she shyly extended her tongue, tasting it, she experienced the most curious pleasure of both tartness and sweetness at the same time. She swallowed, licking her lips clean and turned her blindfolded face to him._
> 
> _'What was_ _**that** _ _?'_
> 
> _His slick, hot tongue traced the small trail of juice that had escaped her greedily parted lips._
> 
> _'That, my darling, was a piece of an orange.'_

 

####

 

Giggles and - well - howls of laughter from the library were getting more and more unnerving. He was quite sure none of them would be doing anything _excessively_ idiotic, but his sister was inside with them... He knocked on the heavy door and pushed it open just an inch.

"Lizzy...?"

"Go away!" a pillow smacked the wall just next to the door. "We are having a serious literary evening here, ladies only...!" Jane was obviously just a tiny bit drunk. Tiny wee bit.

"Well..." Mary snorted. "Ladies and _one gentleman_."

He froze.

"Jesus Christ."

"Ah, woe is betide me!" Elizabeth giggled. "My sisters have driven my betrothed to _blasphemy_! How shall I survive such a horror!"

"I will treat the wound on thy soul with the balm of sisterly consolation," assured her Mary, in a perfectly serious voice. "Thy injuries in the field of love will soon heal and the whiteness of thy scars will be the silent witness to thy dedication!"

Georgiana was chortling wordlessly in the background.

"Are you getting my little sister drunk?"

"Go. Away," Jane had a frighteningly good aim for someone who had already had enough wine to start slurring her words. "We are _reading_. Literature, you know. This thing. Books are full of it."

"And your sister is a grownup!" Georgiana managed to stop laughing like a hyena at last. "Scram! Master of the manor, leave us alone!"

He stifled another curse and pulled the door closed.

A choir of giggles chased him upstairs.

In his study, Charles and Ted were already squabbling over the characters they were going to pick for the game. He stole the controller from Ted and chose Sub-Zero.

He hadn't predicted what the ladies' evening in the library would devolve to, but the three of them had very simple plans - a relaxing evening in front of some very, very old games.

Another wave of female laughter reached him even in his own room.

"Charles, pick bloody Raiden, like always, and get ready to have your butt kicked."

"How did you even get this thing to run on your computer?" Ted poked a stack of CDs now resting on William's desk, labelled in Elizabeth's hand with a simple "OLD GAMES" caption.

"In case you haven't noticed, I've recently got engaged to a woman who can make computers stand on their heads and clap their feet like circus clowns. She was meddling with it for a whole day yesterday and set it up so we can safely play anything you could wish for. Mortal Kombat, Street Fighter or Prince of Persia, I've got it all."

"Budokan?"

"Gauntlet?"

"Even Golden Axe. Elizabeth apparently collects this kind of thing. The older the better. We could play Space Invaders, if you wish. But, for the time being, let me just recall how to do the Spine Rip..."

"Oh, yeah? Well, let _me_ take care of your head..."

"You are so asking for it."

"Eat my electricity!"

"This is the way you want to play it? Very well!"

He barely noticed Ted joining them on the floor as he executed one of Sub-Zero's special moves. Ha. Just like riding a bike, only with one's fingers.

 

#

 

Ted nipped out to check on the children, but a quick verification confirmed expected numbers in all rooms, so they played on, switching from game to game, delving into Elizabeth's archive again and again.

"Grand Prix Circuit?"

"Oooh! I loved this!" Charles sat up suddenly. "Gimme!"

Ted flipped through the CDs curiously, reading the detailed indexes on each case.

"This is _Elizabeth's_ collection, seriously?"

William pulled himself away from the spectacle of Charles trying to conquer the Japanese track and looked up at Ted.

"Well, yes. Not that I don't have a few things carefully stored on some old disk, but I was never a very dedicated gamer, and I had that mishap with my computer a few years back, so most of my archives and savegames evaporated at some point."

"She plays all of this? I mean, this is not a very... well. Girly collection."

Charles actually looked up from his keyboard and met William's gaze. They sighed in unison.

"What?"

"Ted, my boy," Charles said slowly and rather seriously. "Wherever did you get the idea that playing Mortal Kombat or Prince of Persia requires one to have a penis?"

 

#

 

They heard the ladies trying to be very, very quiet as they came back upstairs and all three smothered a very undignified giggle when Jane complained about the carpet trying to trip her.

"OK, that's my cue," Charles stretched and yawned. "Good thing all the kids were fine with sleeping in one room, we won't wake them up. But I think I'd better make sure Janey doesn't fall asleep like this, or she will be regretting this in the morning."

He picked up a bottle of water and handed another one to Ted.

"That would be advisable, yes" the youngest of the three shook himself awake. "Well, for the first time in my life I'm ending a stag night stone sober and strangely satisfied with the entertainment I've experienced. Thank you, gentlemen" he saluted them sloppily. "Let me attend to my wife and make sure she is up to the challenge of tomorrow morning, too."

"As long as they are up for lunch, it should be all fine" William reminded them. "The ceremony is at three, so we'll have plenty of time."

"Kids won't have mercy" Charles yawned. "Breakfast is sacred."

William picked up three bottles and turned off the computer.

"The upside of having teenagers - they are able to feed themselves, as long as basic supplies are available."

"And what's the downside?" Ted smiled at him from the door.

"Bloody everything else," William made sure the windows were shut and the monitor powered down. "Oh, didn't I tell you, guys? Your sweet niece got herself a boyfriend."

Charles and Ted exchanged glances.

"A _what_?"

"Which one?"

William just shook his head.

"Mina. Don't ask. I'm still in denial. We are not even _married_ and our daughter has a boyfriend. I feel _ancient_."

Charles choked on the swig of water he took.

"You poor, decrepit old man. Go to your bed and cover warmly."

"Out. Go and help your very drunk wives not to fall down from their beds."

 

#

 

He knocked softly on Mary's door and, as she opened it quietly, he handed her one of the bottles.

"Thanks," she nodded with a small smile. "I just drank a glass in total, but... thanks."

"No problem. Sleep well."

She frowned and reached for his hand, but stopped herself.

"Will..."

He waited.

"Just, you know. Take care of her."

"Yes, I know. Or you will hurt me."

Mary snorted and shook her head.

"No, I mean, seriously. Take care of her. She is stronger than she thinks she is, but she is also very delicate. She will need you to be there for her when she won't be able to tell you she needs it."

William tried to say something, but found himself at a loss for words, quite literally.

"Yeah. Go and hug her now, or whatever. Give me another bottle, I'll make sure Georgiana drinks it. You go to Lizzy. Shoo."

 

#

 

Elizabeth was a small, curled-up ball under the covers and he slid next to her with a relieved sigh. She smelled of soap and apples and faintly of... oranges?

He turned to switch off his nightlight and there was a half-peeled orange sitting just under the lamp. With a groan he flipped the switch and burrowed deeper, closer to her warmth, grumbling under his breath.

She turned, her loose hair tickling his face and shoulder.

"Did you have fun?" he asked softly.

"Well..." she murmured. "Some more than others, I suppose. But I think, yes. Better than some hen nights I've heard about. You?"

"Ted was impressed with your archive. Charlie still sucks at Mortal Kombat."

She laughed, pressing her face into his biceps to muffle the sound.

"And you?"

"Well, I still can rip out someone's spine with four keypresses, if that's what you are asking..."

"Actually, no," she rolled over him and sprawled comfortably on his chest, propping her chin on her balled-up fists. "Well, that too, absolutely. Glad you had a good time with the boys, but..." she glanced to the side, where the half-peeled orange was resting in semi-darkness. "That was a stupid joke. Sorry."

He caught her before she rolled away, enveloping her in a tight hug.

"I am not very proud of what I wrote," he admitted. "The fact that someone wanted to _print_ this was a surprise. But I already knew you had read it and I told you myself it was me. And, anyway... Did you have fun?" he asked again, punctuating it with a kiss to her shoulder.

"Yes," she giggled softly. "Only don't come near Kitty tomorrow, she had to read the scene with the orange..."

"Well, as long as you enjoyed it, who am I to protest?"

He felt her smile against his cheek.

"Now, did you drink some water?"

"Yes, William, I drank two glasses."

"Very well. Sleep now, or you will be sorry in the morning."

He heard her murmuring something in protest, but soon her movements stilled and their bedroom - _their bedroom!_ \- was filled with quiet breathing.

It was two o'clock in the morning and they were getting married in thirteen hours.

William shivered and, just for a moment, felt he would not be able to fall asleep. There was no way he'd be able to just _sleep_ right now!

The next thing he knew his phone was playing a particular rendition of Reveille and it was ten minutes past seven.

Less than eight hours to the appointment in the Town Hall.

 

####

 

Saturday morning was chilly and really unpleasant, but they gathered around the big table, everyone quietly excited for the afternoon. Magically, despite all the entertainment the grownups had partaken in the day before, Mom and Dad had made it downstairs earlier than anyone else. When Mina and Rose ventured outside of their room (leaving Jackie to sleep in for a few more minutes) aunt Mary and Jimmy were sitting at the top of the stairs, looking at the carvings on the banister and quietly talking about each weird creature depicted there and aunt Mary informed them that their parents were setting up the breakfast table.

When they finally wandered into the dining room, Mom was standing at the sideboard, where a large, flat crepe griddle had been plugged in and she was in the process of pouring a dose of batter when they entered.

"Where did _this_ come from?" Mina was by her elbow in seconds, watching in awe. "I mean, we always made little crepes on the frying pan, and this is like huge!"

"It seems Pemberley has untold treasures in its kitchens. Mrs Reynolds was very sure this monster was somewhere in one of the cupboards, but she prefers to use the pan, so she never really looked for it once it had been stored 'in a safe place'. It seems someone had made a gift of it to her at some point - because, you know, if someone is a housekeeper they, _of course,_ need to be given a house implement for their birthday. So when it was found this week by one of the Derek's girls, I asked to have it set aside, got it clean, checked if it's heating up - and it turned out to be working just fine. So we plugged it in here today to..."

"Because, of course, you'd wish to be the person to feed everyone on the morning of your wedding?" aunt Kitty's voice cut through the monologue, as Mom flipped the crepe with a long, thin spatula.

"Well, I wanted to," Mom shrugged and smiled at Mina. "This is exactly what we were thinking about buying, weren't we?"

"Well, we were more thinking about not having space for it in the kitchen," Mina corrected. "And now we have it _and_ the space to keep it!"

Aunt Kitty made some kind of noise and pushed Natalie and Agatha towards the table.

"Mom, can I make one?" Rose pressed into Mom's other side, giving aunt Kitty an angry look.

"Sure, lovey. Just be careful, the plate is very hot. Now, let me show you..."

Mina tuned them out, focusing on the crepes already waiting on the warmed plate next to the griddle.

"Aunt Mary? One for Jimmy with the cottage cheese and blackberry jam?"

"Thank you, darling, absolutely. He had been nagging me about them for the last four weeks!"

"You could take a few jars with you," Mom suggested, pouring a blob of batter on the griddle. "Now, Rose, turn the spreader... just like this. Very nice! Make it as big as the griddle. Perfect. Now, the spatula, cut it off the griddle, perfect! And now turn. Twenty seconds on this side should be enough... Mary, we still have last year lot in the storage, so I think we can part with half a dozen or so jars from this year. Now, take it off and onto the plate, and I'll pour another one..."

Everything worked in that weird way in which things happened at the same time all around the room. Dad was making coffee for the grownups, aunt Kitty was pouring milk and tea for the kids, aunt Mary and uncle Ted were buttering toast slices for everyone who didn't want a crepe, aunt Jane was strapping Johnny in his high chair, Jackie, Yola and Bella were decorating their crepes with jam and Nutella, Evelyn was growling around a crispy bit of bacon...

Aunt Georgiana marched in with uncle Charles, both of them smiling widely.

_Uhm?_

 

_####_

 

Jimmy managed to inhale one and a half crepe before he declared himself quite full and left the other half for Mary to finish up after him, which she did, rolling her eyes a bit.

"I've heard of a theory," she said "that young mothers gain weight first and foremost because they finish whatever food their children leave uneaten. This apparently happens completely unnoticed as said mother eats _her_ meal first and then whatever the kid had left. Once you see you've been waaay overeating, you have a chance to manage your weight."

"Good thing none of us is a new mother," Kitty was observing Nathalie and Agatha elbowing each other quietly under the huge table. "Or have I missed something?" she shot a glance at Elizabeth.

"No, unless I've missed it, too," Elizabeth shrugged. "Now, anyone wants another one?"

Groans of negation came from all over the room.

"Have _you_ eaten?" William's hands found their way to her hips and he moulded himself to her back, nosing along her hairline. "We can't have you collapsing because of hunger in front of the registrar, that would be an inauspicious omen."

Elizabeth rolled her eyes, but fetched one of the crepes made earlier and carefully decorated it with white cheese, a handful of peach chunks and some artistically dribbled Nutella.

"And I'd like a cup of very, very milky coffee, if you please," she smiled up at him.

"It's already waiting, milady."

Kitty coughed, choking on her tea, and turned to the window, trying to get it under control.

Smiling with faint satisfaction, Elizabeth drank her perfectly prepared coffee.

 

#

 

Mina and Rose roped Jackie into helping them with the dishes and William carried the griddle to the kitchen to store it safely - away from the grasp of the smallest children. The room felt cosy and warm and nobody wanted to be the first to stand up and break the gathering.

Nobody, that is, except for very unnaturally smiling Georgiana.

"Well, is everyone done eating?" she sounded excited, quite unlike her. "Because what I want you to do now is to come with me to the main hall."

Elizabeth frowned at William, but he only shrugged helplessly, so they followed the rest of the family curiously.

There were boxes. A lot of them.

"Now, because it's not only your wedding day, but, first and foremost, Elizabeth's birthday," Georgiana began triumphantly. "This is a present for Elizabeth, from all of us."

Lizzy felt a bit faint, approaching the set of packages.

"What...?"

She suddenly had a folder thrust into her hands.

"Because what can you give to a person who already has everything she had ever wanted?" Jane patted her shoulder.

"Wh..."

"Storage!" Kitty opened the booklet to the page that displayed an actual photo and the name of the piece.

**Ultimate SewingBox**

Elizabeth blinked and looked away from the instruction sheet, up at the excited grownups all around her.

"Oh!" she held her breath for a moment, trying to stop the tears. "I've always wanted...! B-but... Where will I put it?" she finally uttered. "There is no space..."

"Love," William's arms went around her waist and he hugged her quite closely, pressing a kiss to her cheek. "If there is anything in this house, it's space. The room with the leaky window?"

She frowned up at him, not understanding.

"Brian had brought in a specialist immediately after the girls' birthday weekend and it was fixed in the week following. Then he, his men and the cleaning crew removed the furniture when you weren't at home, and moved in the pieces that had been brought from your old flat. Mina helped us with the setup..."

She really couldn't find the words, so she cupped his cheek with her hand and pulled him down into a thorough, mind-cleansing kiss. Only when she felt herself going slightly weak in the knees from the lack of air and enforced position, she let him go, leaning with her whole weight on his chest, looking up at him with widened eyes.

"You've been working in the library or in my study for the past three weeks, and we've been both so busy you never even went downstairs to check on your furniture that was transported from London. Your desk and bookshelves and your own chair, it's all upstairs. This is _my_ birthday present to you. And there is space left for _this_ , whatever this actually is," he nodded to the heap of packages.

She found herself hyperventilating, just a bit, at the thought.

"But, William, this is all too much! And I mean it, all of you... I..."

Her hands were shaking and tears were threatening to fall, until she found herself surrounded by William's warmth - face pressed into the worn out cotton t-shirt.

"It is your study - your workroom, or whatever you choose to call it. You need one, now you have one. The room has been set up to let you work on your computer comfortably - but of course, you can correct the placement of everything, if we, simple barbarians, managed to set it up at a wrong angle to the window or something. There are some shelving units for your boxes, a work table, a window seat... You will see. And right now Brian is moving the last of the containers and bits and pieces from girls' workroom - you know, where you've put it all out of the reach of little hands - to the new one. I..." she saw him swallow and look away. "I hope you'll like it."

She couldn't do anything else but kiss him soundly.

And then everyone simply had to go upstairs and see the newly appointed room. Charles and Ted picked up some of the boxes of the new... however she would call it.

The room was glorious. It was much bigger than "her" room back in London - in fact, it was probably bigger than William's study. Removal of the old, heavy furniture made it look even more roomy.

"We can't do much about the wallpaper and the lamps, it would need proper redecorating with a specialist, but since the window was fixed, the room is warm and cosy. All your books and materials are here, your sewing machine and... basically, whatever was in the storage. And your lamps..."

"And I told them how your desk was set up at home and there is a place for the monitor to be attached, too," Mina piped up. "And, see, a proper working table, you won't have to work on the dining table anymore. And it's a big one!"

In fact a big, heavy-looking but very, very ordinary table had been placed in the corner of the room and although it looked a bit too big for easy manipulating, it was more than she had ever had before.

"And there is a window seat with storage space under it," Rose pointed out. "And Brian put in all these shelves so you don't have to store boxes stacked and you can now just pull one out, instead of a whole tower of them..."

She gathered both of them close and hugged, unable to say anything more.

"We actually _do_ have a separate gift for you," Mina mumbled into her shoulder. "But I suppose it may be kind of a letdown after Dad's present..."

"But, here it is," Rose handed her a tiny box wrapped in green paper and decorated with a slightly squashed bow.

She let go of them and carefully undid the ribbons, then took off the tape, then unwrapped it.

"A pair of... stockings?" she blinked at the tiny box. "But..."

Mina grinned at her.

"Check the picture," she advised.

"Oh," she laughed. "Where did you find _these_?"

"In the same place that sells _these,_ " Mina handed her the second package.

A pair of stockings decorated with musical notes.

And a pair of knee-high socks with piano keyboard print.

"These are lovely," she kissed each forehead with a resounding 'smack'. "Absolutely lovely, dears."

"One, two, three..." she heard Jane count and managed to turn to the others just in time.

 

_Happy Birthday to you,_

_Happy Birthday to you,_

_Happy Birthday dear Lizzy...!_

_Happy Birthday to you!_

 

She felt torn between trying to kiss and hug everyone and crying. So she did both. Finally, all the children were herded out of the room to be washed and changed into something they could wear outside and she was left with William and their girls.

"That was," she hiccoughed. "That was a perfect... surprise! How... how did you manage... this?"

"Dress fittings," he informed her with satisfaction. "And I have a tracker on Georgiana's phone - she has on mine, it's a mutually agreed sibling spying - so I've sent that text about peelers only when you two were already on your way back, to give us more time."

"You... what?" she frowned, trying to get angry, but couldn't stay so for long, as William was smiling at her like a madman.

"And I had them cleaning here every minute you were out of the house. Brian was sending them upstairs to remove all the packaging and so on whenever you went to town. It was a challenge, I have to say."

"I..." she turned around, taking in the whole room, the work that had been put into setting it all up. "William, I can't..."

"You need your own space. Everyone needs their own space. You can't work in the library forever and you will need your big computer from time to time, I suppose. I'm not throwing you out of my study, by no means! I love having you there, torturing your laptop and mumbling curses at it!" he drew her closer and tucked her head under his chin. "But I don't think it is a sustainable solution for you. Now, here, you will be able to work in comfort - I hope - and I will be just two rooms down the corridor, so..."

"We'll call you when it's time for lunch," Mina's soft words interrupted them, but the door was already closing behind the girls when they turned.

"So..." she sighed, relaxing against his warm bulk. "If I'm bored or can't work, I can just go to your study and bother you?"

"I suppose so," he purred into her ear. "Or I can come here and interrupt you when _I_ am bored."

"Mhm. And how would you do that?" she stretched and looked up at him. Crystalline blue sparkled with amusement as his small laughing lines deepened.

"Oh, so this is the way thou wants te spend the mornin before thee weddin?" his voice dropped almost an octave, suddenly gaining something of a broader character as he sought her lips with his. "Righ'ere?"

"Will-iam...!"

Good thing they both had scorned the idea of "not seeing the bride before the wedding" idiocy (floated by Charles at about nine-ish the day before), because trying to avoid each other until three in the afternoon...

_Oh._

_Mmm._

_Right here._

"Will...!" she gasped as he hoisted her higher, pulling her legs to surround his hips and turned towards the window seat.

"Now, where were we..." he slid his hands under her skirt and laced the fingers of his hands right under her seat, cupping it in his large palms. "Ah. Perfect."

_Perfect, yes._

_Mmm!_

 

####

 

After a light lunch - to ensure everyone's cooperation and proper deportment during the ceremony - all present and under the age of ten had to be washed again. Only Mina, Rose and Jackie escaped with their dignity intact, despite the fact that Nathalie managed to drop her glass of juice (by complete accident) and drench almost everyone with its contents. Not even aunt Kitty had any idea how half a glass of juice managed to go so far. Nevertheless, all kids were splattered with carrot juice and needed to be re-dressed into something cleaner.

 

#

 

All three girls crowded into their bedroom (where Jackie had also left her bag and had hanged up her dress the evening before) and went quickly about their preparations. Rose was still vacillating between wearing the navy skirt and trousers of the same material. Mina was putting on and taking off her blazer, trying to work out which option looked better with her dress and Jackie couldn't make her mind if it was already cold enough to warrant wearing leggings or if her long socks would be enough.

When aunt Mary came to fetch them, they were in a sorry state, all three on a verge of collapse due to simple inability to decide.

"You," their aunt pointed to Jackie "put on these tights, right now. It's not as warm outside as you think it is. You, the same, put on the trousers," she ordered Rose. "Mina, you put on thick cream tights, just the same as Jackie. You'd rather not come back home and have to stay in bed because you've caught a cold at your own parents' wedding!"

 

#

 

The Lambton Town Hall was a modest, brown and grey building that looked like nothing specific at all. There were other pairs moving through the parking lot, obvious with their families and friends, someone with a huge camera trailing after a rather senior couple and one group comprised entirely of women.

They had arrived with enough safety margin that everyone's nerves were soothed, and even Elizabeth, prone to 'can't be late' anxiety, could say they were comfortably on time. Although she still tended to look around herself in surprise - only from time to time - he felt her relax against his shoulder gradually as their sisters surrounded them, all presenting a united front of elegance in strong colours. Elizabeth had her wine-coloured set of dress and long coat, while the others were dressed in different shades of red, each matching the colouring of their eyes and hair. Even their twins, whose clothes had not been specifically bought for the occasion, looked quite smartly coordinated, with their neckerchiefs in the exact red of the dress marking them as members of Elizabeth's party.

Georgiana had provided him with a matching bowtie and pocket square on Tuesday, when the dress was brought in, so he knew the colour. He hadn't been even able to theorise as to the _cut_ of it, until he saw Elizabeth coming down the stairs a mere hour before.

 

#

 

_Georgiana, Kitty, Charles and Ted were already in the main hall, children finally more or less clean and somewhat organised (although Evelyn had to be bribed not to roar at her cousins at the least expected moments). He joined them and, in an attempt not to look too nervous, almost spilt a glass of water all over himself._

_Georgie extricated the glass from his grasp and handed him a bottle, saying something about jitters under her breath._

_A door opened upstairs and they all froze, but it was only Mary - well, Mary, Rose, Mina and Jackie, and Jimmy of course, who quickly descended the stairs and joined them in their nervous wait._

_"How long can this take?" Jackie asked what everyone was thinking._

_"I hope not too long, but Mommy is helping aunt Elizabeth with her hair, so, who knows" Charles patted his eldest daughter's shoulder. "We have time, don't worry. Anyway the ceremony will not start without aunt Lizzy."_

_Jackie sighed theatrically._

_William wanted to do the same, but then, again, a door opened._

_The first to show on the stairs was Jane, in a long dress that made her look even taller than she was and..._

_His brain stopped. He remembered that sensation perfectly later on._

_He couldn't say what it was about that dress, exactly. It was simple. There was no lace, no frills, no contrasting pattern, nothing specific that could have hit him so. And yet._

_A deep-cut wrap-around top that was modelled to perfection, exposing absolutely everything that Elizabeth's deeper necklines tended to expose, a cinched waist marked with a slightly lighter belt and soft drape of the skirt, showing her shapely ankles and feet encased in mid-height heels. Everything, from the shoes, to the dress, to a glittering pendant, to the ribbon artistically weaved into the crown of auburn braids, was in deep, wine red._

_Nobody else in the family could have carried that colour off successfully._

_The other Bennet sisters were too light - too blonde, too bland. Georgiana's eyes and skin and nearly-black hair would have clashed in an unfortunate manner with that specific shade._

_Elizabeth looked as if she was born to dress only in burgundy. She was all warmth, determined dark reds, browns and golds._

_He reached out and she stepped carefully down the stairs to meet him._

_He wasn't sure what to say - he didn't even know if there was anything he should say, but he drew her closer to him and pressed a kiss to her palm._

_"Ready?" she smiled at him._

_Oh, he was._

 

#

 

As soon as they parked all the cars and unloaded all the children, dividing the smaller ones between adults and the oldest kids, a pair standing next to a car a few places over drew their attention. William smiled at the thinly-veiled appreciation of almost every passer-by - even one pair of newlyweds seemed to be admiring the general aesthetics of the scene. Finally, noticing their preoccupation, Charles raised his head from where he had been adjusting the strap on Johnny's pushchair. He rolled his eyes and whistled shrilly.

"Oi! Rick! Stop snogging him and come say hello to the family!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Ultimate SewingBox is like the Holy Grail of all craft storage.](https://www.theoriginalscrapbox.com/products/the-ultimate-sewingbox)   
>  [The piano socks](https://www.groovebags.com/products/piano-socks?variant=34331480963)   
>  [The musical note tights](https://pamelamann.co.uk/flocked-musical-notes-tights-black)


	30. We'll build the fire high - p7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Town Hall, finally!  
> Nothing can go wrong now.  
> Yeah.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The scenes just following this one are resisting, so I decided to split the post and publish this half now.

Mina managed not to giggle at the exaggerated way the two ended their rather prolonged kiss and watched them approach the family group with curiosity. The other man was marginally shorter than uncle Richard and much slimmer, but in some weird, inexplicable way they matched. Mina could have ascribed it to the military style of clothing they shared, but there was something more, something that made her think of...

_Yep, just like Mom and Dad._

There was that feeling, that quiet suggestion that if uncle Richard reached out, the other man would catch his hand immediately.

"Fine, _Chuck_. This is me, saying hello to the family. Family, this is Evan. Evan, this is my family. Well, mostly it's Elizabeth's family, so William's, so, by a far-fetched extension... And I think I'm babbling, but, man, you are getting married!" he pulled Dad into a tight hug and thumped him on the shoulder.  
"Definitely" Dad rolled his eyes and patted uncle Richard's back, before waving to his partner. "Hi, Evan. Good to see you again. I'm glad you could get some time off for this."

Mum smiled widely and reached out to shake Evan's hand.

"Ah, I couldn't miss such an important event" the man smiled back. "Richard seemed pretty _intense_ about the whole thing."

_Ooh, Welsh. That's interesting._

"Quite correctly" Dad was still smiling, but gathered Mom to himself. "Thirteen years of waiting is quite enough, so we're going to make it as memorable as possible."

Mom groaned.

"Just don't try to stress too much about the _memorable_ part, or something will happen that we will be unable to forget, but for all the wrong reasons."

"Very well, Miss Bennet," Dad offered her his arm. "Inside then? Or are we waiting for anyone else?"

Mom looked around, but obviously couldn't see much over the heads of everyone.

"Let's go inside," she agreed. "Whoever else is going to come, they can join us there."

Mina watched as uncle Richard took over carrying of the harp box from aunt Georgiana and shot a glance at Rose.

"Do you have them?"

Her sister rolled her eyes and patted her side.

"Yeah, kept them in my pocket. Don't worry. They won't have to get married with, like, curtain rings. Or a ring with a skull."

 

####

 

_Dad knocked on their door after all the little children had been put to bed and the three of them were quietly watching "The Corpse Bride" on the tablet._

_"Rose? Can you step outside for a moment?"_

_Mina paused the movie and they watched with Jackie as Rose was handed a small box and nodded several times to Dad's quiet explanations. She then stepped to where her jacket was hanging and slipped the box into the pocket._

_"Rings," she said succinctly, before throwing herself on the bed and joining them. "Go back a few seconds and let's watch this last scene again."_

_"But..."_

_"Dad told me not to take them out and not to play with them, no matter what. Just leave them alone."_

_"I just..."_

_Rose looked at her with reproach._

_"Seriously?"_

_She shrugged, moved the marker half a minute back and started the movie again._

_Still, she wished she could have had a look at the rings._

 

####

 

The corridor in front of the "chambers" was bland and empty, devoid of all decorations, but at least it was lined with chairs and benches. The only important feature was the multitude of doors on both sides. Mina sighed, checking her mobile.

There was already a small delay. Probably the previous pair had a lot of people or something.

Lucy - Miss Yang - appeared out of nowhere by aunt Georgiana's side, very smart in her black skirt and short jacket and was now being introduced to all the other aunts, who were eyeing her with curiosity. Uncle Richard and Evan were reading some announcement in one of the glass-covered displays. Aunt Georgiana tapped the cover of her harp lightly and said something to Miss Yang, smiling widely.

Mina leaned on Rose's shoulder and felt her sister's responding slump in her direction.

Mrs Reynolds arrived with Brian and most of the estate workers and their wives and there were several people who looked like Dad's employees from the company, too.

She looked down at the music sheet she was clutching in her hands and sighed.

Mom, aunt Georgiana and Miss Yang would be able to appreciate if she did good work. She hoped she would - three weeks of practising felt woefully short suddenly. Why did their parents have to get married on Mom's birthday? Why couldn't they have waited until Christmas?

She groaned and squeezed her eyes shut.

Barely the day before, aunt Georgiana had seemed to sure of them, so certain they were going to do well. Now, Mina felt shivers coming down her spine when she even thought about opening her mouth in front of everyone in the room. She had never had a problem singing on a competition or at school or _anywhere_. Why now?

_Because now it's for Mom and Dad. If you mess it up, everyone is going to remember that forever and ever. And you and aunt Georgiana are going to be the only ones performing..._

The chair on her other side squeaked when someone sat in it.

"Don't panic, kid. You will do fine."

She blinked her eyes open and looked suspiciously at uncle Richard.

"I'm serious. Georgiana was telling me last week how well you were doing, practising with her. I..." he looked away. "I wanted to know how you were doing, but didn't want to bother you. I know I messed up and I want to make up for it, if I can. So I asked her to... to just tell me if you were OK and she said you were spending all your time preparing for this. And, you know, if she says you'll do fine, you will."

She licked her suddenly dry lips and cracked a small smile.

"Thanks."

"I..." he leaned closer, lowering his voice in a slightly conspiratorial manner "...I used to sing, at school. Well, I still _can_ sing, but don't have that many occasions to do it. We don't have a band or anything like that on the base," he chewed his lip for a moment. "I have to admit, sometimes I miss it."

"What..." Mina felt her voice catch. "What kind of stuff did you sing?"

He snorted and grinned widely.

"Musicals. I mean it, pick anything that a tenor could sing, I've tried it."

"But you haven't had much time to like, practise properly, recently?"

"Well, not much. Maybe, if I could rearrange my schedule, find a voice coach, but... Would take me weeks and weeks to get up to speed."

Mina sat up and leaned on the wall with a small smile, watching him watch her.

"So... would you be willing to admit..." she felt a sudden, overwhelming rush of boldness "...that - at least when it comes to singing! - anything you can to, I can do better?"

Rose turned to them, but Mina never took her eyes off uncle Richard, watching him expectantly.

"What?"

"I can do anything better than you," she declared, crossing her arms in front of her.

"No, you can't," he responded finally, lips twitching into a smile.

"Yes, I can," she smiled widely.

"No, you _can't_ ," he stressed.

"Yes, I can!"

"Mina..."

"No, you can't," there was a shade of laughter in his voice and it cracked on the last word as he tried to finally sing it.

She giggled, unable to hold her countenance anymore.

"What the hell..."

"I will wash your mouth with soap, miss Rose," uncle Richard pointed a finger at her sister. "Now, I think we can continue this at a later date, Mina, when I'm better prepared for a little sing-off. Here," he handed her a water bottle. "You may need it. I need to get back to Evan before your aunts smother him."

He rose with a smirk, leaving the sisters staring at him quietly.

"What was _that_?" Rose hissed at her.

"Not sure, but I am going to follow up on this," Mina opened the water bottle and took a swig. "But he does have a nice voice, to be sure."

"But this..."

"A song. 'Anything you can do'. I will show you at home."

"Ah," Rose calmed down. "It sounded... weird."

"He said he used to sing show tunes, so..." Mina shrugged. "I couldn't think about anything else that would fit."

"Warn me next time, I thought you were picking up an argument with him!"

 

#

 

The previous wedding party had finally left and one attendant asked for their parents and the witnesses to step into the office, while another invited the guests inside. Aunt Jane and uncle Charles, as the official witnesses, left their kids in aunt Kitty's care and entered the small room while everyone else flooded the main chamber. Uncle Richard carried the harp and the music sheet stand to the front of the room, letting aunt Georgiana set it up to her comfort. Mina stood next to her, checking for the very last time if they had the songs in the same order and consulting about the moments where they were supposed to be ready.

Everyone else filled in the room and suddenly there were _so many_ people, it felt as if the whole town had come. She took a panicked breath and looked around, searching for familiar faces.

Uncle Richard was greeting an older couple who had arrived with barely a minute to spare, and a few others - including a man eerily similar to her godfather - were nodding at each other in welcome.

Slowly, slowly, with the help of the usher, uncle Richard and - to Mina's slight surprise - Evan, people got seated - aunt Kitty and uncle Ted ordering all the children into two rows of chairs, Mrs Reynolds being escorted by Brian to the row just behind them and finally everyone freeing the aisle for the main actors of the event to walk through. Aunt Mary placed herself by the first row, just beside the harp and uncle Richard was finally ended up standing opposite her, looking at the back of the room expectantly.

"Jane and Charles asked for the privilege of being the ones to herd Lizzy and Will inside. Jane wants to be the one to close the door, to make sure they don't try to run at the last second," aunt Mary shared in an undertone. "We are the ones to catch them if they try for the windows."

Rose stood by uncle Richard, so pale that Mina could have probably counted all the freckles on her twin's nose - if she wasn't feeling a bit faint herself.

Not even looking down, uncle Richard pulled Rose closer and hugged her shoulders, saying something Mina couldn't hear, but what made Rose relax visibly.

"He really is sorry," aunt Georgiana said suddenly. "He knows he messed up, so..."

"Yes, yes. I will give him a chance" Mina rolled her eyes. "But maybe we can not talk about it right _now_?" she inhaled with some difficulty, feeling her chest constrict as stage fright gripped her tightly.

She didn't even notice the official-looking lady who magically took a place in the middle of the front of the room, just between uncle Richard and aunt Mary, until she was standing there, but suddenly the talks quieted and everyone turned to look back.

The door opened and their parents finally walked in, hand in hand. Mom in her dark red dress and elaborate plaited updo and Dad in his black suit with all the little details in the colour of Mom's dress, both looking as if they were ready to jump at any smallest sound but, at the same time, smiling like loons at each other.

She looked at aunt Georgiana, who nodded and reached towards the strings.

They had had an extensive discussion about the version they were going to go with - first considering the option of just singing the text from the movie, skipping Timon's parlando, but then deciding that the lyrics didn't really fit the situation, they finally went with sir Elton John's solo version, simplifying it a bit.

Mom looked at them with wide eyes as aunt Georgiana went through the intro, but everyone present started turning towards them when Mina joined her.

 

_There's a calm surrender to the rush of day_

_When the heat of the rolling world can be turned away_

_An enchanted moment and it sees me through_

_It's enough for this restless warrior just to be with you_

 

Mom and Dad were now standing by the chairs prepared for them and Mina took a breath to begin the chorus and felt she didn't have enough air. Aunt Georgiana calmly played through the section again, waiting for Mina to join her.

She had to calm down. She had to. Her eyes searched for Rose, but her twin was turned to their parents. She looked up, past aunt Mary and caught uncle Richard's eye. He nodded slowly, to the rhythm.

And breathed with her, setting a pattern.

And again, nodding at her.

_Now._

She inhaled again. Waited for a the right moment in the melody to arrive.

And sang.

Her voice almost wavered for a moment, but she kept it steady until the end of the fourth line, taking just enough air in just the right moments, following uncle Richard's directions.

_Oh._

She looked away, lightheaded, but saw his small smile.

The Registrar - the official-looking lady - was explaining why they were there - as if they didn't know! - and saying they were allowed to sing and play music as arranged - who arranged it? - take photos and film the event, only making sure nobody came between her and the Bride and Groom, and, possibly, not use too much flash and none in her direction. The tall man so similar to uncle Richard already had a very big, sleek-looking camera out and was taking the photos of the guests and everything he could, and on the other side of the room, Evan was doing the same.

"Very well. Let's proceed then," the lady looked at Mom and Dad and then at the people in the room. "To satisfy the requirements of law, please state your full names for the record. Elizabeth?"

Mom grinned at Dad and enunciated carefully.

"Elizabeth Rosalinde Bennet."

"Thank you. William?"

"William Francis Adam Darcy."

"Very well, thank you. You can sit now."

Aunt Georgiana nodded and touched the strings again, going through what they converted into the introduction to the next song - making the whole part sang in the movie by "the father" instrumental. Mina anyway sang it for herself, in her thoughts, to keep in rhythm and to come in perfectly with the chorus.

 

_Look, look, look to the rainbow_

_Follow it over through hill and stream_

_Look, look, look to the rainbow_

_Follow the fellow who follows the dream_

 

Mom was trying not to smile too much, but failing miserably.

The next part was what they had changed to fit the whole situation better.

 

_So she bundled her heart_

_And she roamed the world free_

_To the east with the lark_

_To the west with the sea_

_And she searched all the Earth_

_And she scanned all the skies_

_But she found it at last_

_In her own true love's eyes_

 

Aunt Georgiana joined her for the second chorus and then again, the last lines were only played, not sung.

The registrar waited for the music to cease and asked Mom and Dad to stand up. "I am required now to ask if any person present knows of any lawful impediment to this marriage. If so, they should declare it now."

After a brief - thankfully - moment of silence, she smiled and continued. There was something being said about the union of two people, friendship and honour, in a rather complicated language that Mina had simply tuned out, to better observe her parents, still holding their hands and smiling at each other from time to time.

And, across from her, uncle Richard, who, instead of paying attention to the proceedings, was watching Evan.

_Ah-ha._

"I do solemnly declare..."

"I do solemnly declare," repeated Dad in his deep voice "that I know not of any lawful impediment why I, William Francis Adam Darcy, may not be joined in matrimony to Elizabeth Rosalinde Bennet."

Mom's clear, bright voice rose over the general murmur of the world outside the walls as she repeated her own declaration, her eyes never leaving Dad's face.

"Thank you. The next part is where you two exchange what is called 'Contracting Words'. Please, repeat after me now..."

Dad took a longer breath and they turned to face each other, as if there was nobody else but them in that room.

"I call upon these persons here present to witness that I, William, do take thee Elizabeth, to be my lawful wedded wife."

Mina knew she was not supposed to cry, because crying would mean she would not be able to sing, but there were tears prickling corners of her eyes and, as she tried to stifle the inelegant desire to clear her suddenly tight throat, she saw Rose doing exactly the same thing.

 

####

 

Mina and aunt Georgiana were _perfect_. Rose stood in her place, watching them play and sing, uncle Richard's warm hand on her shoulder anchoring her in the here and now.

Mom looked like an autumn fairy queen, all in that deep red and with something sparkling on her neck - the heels added two inches, which wasn't inconsequential in Mom's case - and the hairdo was absolutely fantastic.

And Dad was looking at her as if he hadn't seen anything more interesting in his life.

Well, he probably hadn't, actually.

A cold hand of terror closed around her brain when the official lady asked if anyone would have some reason to protest against that marriage.

_Why? Why do they even ask this stuff?!_

Because Rose was quite sure that any second aunt Catherine would jump out of some corner, screaming about Anne and her being the only possible Mrs Darcy, or Anne would somehow manage to... to just mess this all up.

_Argh!_

Rose straightened her shoulders and listened attentively to the registrar, who was now talking about how marriage was a permanent and serious institution - as if, lady, dream on... but Rose really hoped it _would_ be true in their case. And then there were the declarations and the contracting words and Mom was finally saying "I call upon these persons here present to witness that I, Elizabeth, do take thee, William, to be my lawful wedded husband," and Rose felt she could finally breathe in relief. Because it was done!

And then there was a little hush and she felt uncle Richard squeezing her shoulder.

"The rings, kid," he whispered and, in panic, Rose reached into her pocket and drew out the box she had been fingering for most of the last hour.

She nodded at aunt Georgiana, who started on "I do, I do" - Mina would not singing this one, they finally decided - and then flipped the box open to hand it to Dad.

Or no.

The box didn't open.

She breathed slowly and tried again.

From the corner of her eye, she saw Mina cringing a bit, but aunt Georgiana was steadily playing and probably nobody noticed.

Not yet.

Hopefully.

_Argh._

"This side," uncle Richard turned the box over in her hands and patted her shoulder again.

And the bloody stupid thing opened, of course.

She saw her sister's shoulders sag as tension left her suddenly.

Rose felt a bit lightheaded suddenly as she handed the box - two rings inside, all as expected - to Dad.

He squeezed her hand briefly and smiled, rolling his eyes, just a bit.

All was fine. It was going to be OK.

"Elizabeth," Dad sounded serious, despite his smile. "Please take this ring as a sign of my love, my respect and my undying trust in you. I promise to always be there for you, to listen and to remember. You have my heart and you are my future."

He picked the smaller of the rings...

Together with the rolls of material that filled the box.

The ring was stuck in the velvet-covered stuffing of the box.

Aunt Georgiana was steadily playing the same section of the song for the fourth time.

The door opened and closed, the sound barely audible.

Someone coughed.

"William?" the registrar was looking at Dad with a small smile.

"I'm afraid..." Dad ground his teeth. "This thing is stuck."

Mom made a choked little sound.

"Both of them, in fact," and Dad turned the box insert upside down. Indeed, both rings were still merrily gleaming on the red velvet. "I..."

Aunt Jane reached between them and snatched the rings away.

"Give this here, Will Darcy."

"Janey!"

As soon as Rose saw the pink handle in aunt Jane's hand, she knew what it was. A quick look at her sister's face confirmed she was not the only one.

Aunt Georgiana was playing "I do, I do" steadily, probably for the eight time now.

The guests were starting to whisper.

Aunt Jane stabbed the box insert with the blade of her multitool and did something.

And the ring gave in. And sprang up in a high, glittering arc.

Evading everyone's grasping hands, it bounced off the floor with a merry *plink* *plink* *plink* and rolled under the last row of chairs, out of sight.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Notes: "Look to the rainbow" begins with:
> 
>  
> 
> _On the day she was born, said her father, said he_  
>  “I've an elegant legacy waiting for ye  
> Tis the song for your lips and a rhyme for your heart  
> To sing it whenever the world falls apart”
> 
>  
> 
> Which would not fit at all.
> 
> Then the verse is sung in first person and Mina is singing the text changed to third person.
> 
> And, of course, "Can you feel the love tonight" has two versions, one from the movie (with Timon's speaking parts) and the single one.
> 
> ####
> 
> Note #2: Evan is one of the Welsh forms of John; and in Welsh the pet name for John is Ianto. A special reference for fans of Doctor Who ;)


	31. We'll build the fire high - p8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Wedding, reception & dinner

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There will be a longer break now, I'm afraid - an unexpected business trip and a Christmas fair next week, so I won't be able to post. I hope I'll be able to _write_... We'll see.

Aunt Mary hid her face in her hand, uttering some muffled curse.

Uncle Richard was shivering, his hand still on Rose's shoulder.

Aunt Jane became slightly pale, red spots blazing high on her cheeks.

Someone in the back of the room started moving the chairs away, but everyone froze at the sound of a piping, clear, child voice.

"Did Mommy just drop that ring?"

_Ah. Evelyn._

Uncle Charles pressed his nose with two fingers.

The registrar lady had gone slightly red.

Dad, for once, looked unsure what to do. There was a chair blocking him from taking more than one step from where he was standing, and as he tried turning, Mom's grip immobilised him.

"You _stay here_ ," she ordered sharply and snatched the remnants of the box and the multitool from aunt Jane's hands. Swiftly and efficiently, she did _something_ to the second ring, which didn't jump or spring away or even fall to the floor, but obediently rolled into her palm. She caught Dad's left hand and pulled him to face her.

"William, with this ring, I give you the sign of my love and trust and respect. I promise I will always be there and I will listen and I will speak up when needed. You have my heart and you are my future."

The registrar looked strangely pained, but she nodded, and Mom slid the ring on Dad's finger. He flexed his hand and looked up at the official, who grimaced.

"William, I think you will have to..."

Someone slid to a stop right behind Dad - someone in a dark button-down and a very dusty pair of black denims.

"Mr Darcy? I-- I found it."

Rose bit her lip and tasted blood.

Dad took a heavy, laboured breath before he turned.

"Thank you, Teddy," he looked at the boy with a strained smile. "I... thank you."

"No problem," Teddy nodded at him and at uncle Richard and stepped away, and a bit closer to the opposite side of the aisle. Of course, that naturally brought him closer to _Mina_ , who smiled at him sunnily.

After Dad had wiped the ring and managed to put it on Mom's finger, the rest of the ceremony went smoothly. Mina sang "A dream is a wish your heart makes", some older ladies in the crowd made cooing sounds when Mom and Dad finally kissed, aunt Georgiana had time to relax her hands when the registrar was saying the closing words and declaring that their parents were finally married. Then there was the signing of the register and Evan was snapping last photos of the newlyweds and the witnesses - all four, even if only two of them were actually named in the large book - and it was finally time to leave.

Rose picked up the poor box insert, discarded on an empty chair after that whole debacle and hid it in her pocket as everyone clapped and applauded and stood up to see Elizabeth and William Darcy walk up to the door as a properly, lawfully wedded couple.

"Incredible," aunt Mary sighed in theatrical whisper.

"What?" aunt Georgiana stretched her fingers and raised them over her harp for the last time.

"There was time when I thought - I suppose we all did - that these two would never again agree on any topic, you see. And now?"

"Hah," uncle Charles patted Dad's shoulder. "Now we got them to actually _sign_ something together."

"Charles... I will ignore that," Dad smiled and shook his hand. "On the condition that you will disarm your wife before any future family celebrations. She is a menace with sharp tools."

Aunt Jane made an outraged sound, but was quickly pulled aside by aunt Mary, thus making place for Mom and Dad to walk between everyone who stood up to see them.

But they didn't.

Dad winked at aunt Georgiana and pulled Mom closer, into, well - a dancing position.

"May I have this one?"

Mom frowned and looked around.

"William...?"

Aunt Georgiana touched the harpstrings.

It was a waltz. A Viennese, and Dad knew how to lead. _Obviously_.

Rose shot a glance at the lady holding the registry book, but she was smiling and nodding to the rhythm.

_They may be crazy, but at least_ _**someone** _ _set it up in advance._

 

####

 

They stood in the large side room where something of a reception had been set up for them, all ready to deal with these guests who weren't invited to the smaller family party planned later at Pemberley. Elizabeth was still reeling from the fact that they had _danced_ out of the chamber where they had been just married - _married!_ \- especially after all that weirdness with the rings. William seemed to be already doing much better than she did, but their guests' faces showed varied measures of amusement and surprise. In a moment Richard arrived, carrying Georgiana's harp, followed by her sister-in-law - sister-in-law! - and her music stand. Everyone was ushered to stand around, making room, and then Georgiana started playing again, the same Viennese waltz as before.

_Ah._

William pulled her closer and they twirled about the room, taking turn after turn, his eyes boring into hers.

 

_Einmal m_ _öcht ich wieder tanzen_

_so wie damals im Mai_

_einen rechten, s_ _üßen Walzer,_

_wo das Herz ist dabei._

 

I just want to dance once again

Just like I did in May

Right and proper, sweet Viennese

In which my heart will be

 

They only danced for two repetitions of the melody, taking precisely enough time to ensure everyone was gathered and the servers had distributed the glasses. As they approached the main table, adorned with an elaborate flower arrangement, they were handed their own drinks and allowed to sit and rest on the beribboned chairs waiting there.

Charles and Richard looked at each other, somehow communicating mutely.

"William asked Charles and me to be his best men - not sure how it is supposed to work with _both_ of us being the best, but Charles signed the register as the official witness, so I will be the one to torture you all with a speech," he raised his glass and guests murmured a polite disagreement. "First and foremost, I wanted to thank you all for coming here for these two," he nodded to where she and William were sitting and winked broadly. "We weren't quite sure they'd be actually able to go through with this, so it was a nice feeling to have such a strong backup in case they decided to leg it. Fortunately _they_ didn't, so _we_ didn't have to organise you all into searching parties - but don't worry, I had a full plan prepared for that eventuality!"

A smattering of applause interrupted him and Elizabeth sighed, hoping it would be all.

"For all the practical purposes, Charles and I represent here both of the families, so on behalf of the more reasonable groups from both sides - thank you for being here. And now, let's all raise our glasses - to Elizabeth and William, who had _finally_ agreed on some topic!"

"Yes, we also agree that you are annoying," Elizabeth informed him under her breath.

"Elizabeth and William!" Charles raised his glass, and everyone was smiling and they had to stand up and drink the toast to their own happiness.

What followed was the usual round of well-wishing, flowers, hugs, air-kisses, real kisses and, rarely, strangely strained smiles.

She was really hoping the whole thing wouldn't take too long, or she would have to take these shoes off and there was no guarantee she'd be able to put them on afterwards!

But - really - they were married. And that was the most important thing.

She nodded, she shook hands, she allowed herself to be congratulated. William's whispered commentary helped her to put them in the right context - the company, the contractors, someone from the community...

"Lizzy! Fabulous dress!"

"Evie! Well, you know, last minute thing, so it is a bit basic... But tolerable enough, I suppose."

"Come here, you terrible little woman," Evie enveloped her in the first honest hug she had received in the last half hour. "Oooh, you look so well! And I mean it, not only because I made that thing, I really honestly mean it."

"Thanks," she patted Evie's shoulder and they parted a bit. "William, this is Evie, who had sewn this dress and also, quite by coincidence, used to sit behind me on maths for two years."

William frowned, but Evie grinned at him.

"Evie Martin, I knew Elizabeth before she was cool. We bonded over shared love of hard fantasy and disdain for standard school-provided entertainment."

"We were once photographed reading in the corner during a school dance," Elizabeth explained, smiling at William's surprised grin. "And now Evie lives in Lambton and she is the dressmaker who is responsible for _this_ ," she gestured to the dress.

"Then I must express my most ardent thanks," William bowed over Evie's hand. "It is a masterpiece."

They both laughed merrily and Evie hugged her again before she made room for new well-wishers.

 

#

 

William's family showed up - the whole set of Richard's family, to be precise - his parents, his older brother and said brother's wife. They presented an unified front of 'distant but kind', with Matthew and Leanna being more on the 'kind' side of spectrum.

"We didn't know anything about Catherine's... ideas," aunt Mathilda informed them with distaste. "It is one thing to wish one's children settled, but this _idiocy_... Well, let me just say, these two are now quite, quite alone in their little family circle of two. We've hosted Anne for some time after they were asked to leave Pemberley, but even Henry grew tired of her incessant complaining about William and finally she was moved to one of the guest lodges. We didn't know they were planning to break into Pemberley!"

"Or, I suppose, to attack Elizabeth in bright daylight," William sighed. "We don't blame you - I've let them live under my roof for way too long and I've never noticed they had been stealing my post, so I can't expect others to be more attentive."

"Thank you, dear boy. I felt a bit guilty about letting Anne stay, but while Catherine is rather self-sufficient, Anne..."

They all grimaced.

"Wherever she was staying, now Anne is no longer our problem. Either she will be found sane and so she will go to prison or she will be diagnosed with some disorder and then, depending on further evaluation, she may even be placed in some isolated ward. I'm not sure what I'd prefer, but I must admit - for the time being I'm mostly focused on these aspects of my life that I _can_ influence."

"Now that you mention influencing, I was thinking about Richard..."

"Uncle!"

"I mean... is this boy right for him? Will Richard settle down?" the old man frowned at his youngest. "I worry about him, all the time. I hoped he'd find someone who would stabilise him and I hope this Evan fellow will be the one..."

William choked a bit and Elizabeth felt it her duty to thump his on his back a few times.

"What...?" uncle Henry turned back to them and looked up at Will. "Oh, really, nephew. I may be old, but I'm not a dinosaur, even if some of my colleagues probably are... If Evan makes Richard happy, then he makes him happy, period. I never expected him to marry a wafer-thin socialite and churn out a set of backup babies for the family needs. I just hope having that boy by his side will convince him to stop mucking about with things that go 'boom'..!"

"Well, I think it's up to them," Elizabeth intervened. "We will support them, no matter which option they choose."

"Oh, we will, too. I just need some reassurance that he will keep the current number of fingers and other pieces..."

 

#

 

Most of the guests had left after a round of drinks and a piece of a perfectly acceptable if unexciting cake (delivered by the local bakery), leaving behind a small, glittering heap of gifts. Evan, who had been steadily documenting the whole well-wishing line, promised to have the photos uploaded for them soon, so that they could write the thank-you notes to whoever had made the effort.

The Pemberley employees brought in a large container and removed whatever was supposed to go back to the house, one of them tasked with transporting Georgiana's harp.

Only the closest family was left now - well, that and a few small additions - and everyone was slowly starting to put their coats on. It was getting late and there was a proper dinner waiting for them at the house, so they had to get everyone in their cars and moving. At some point.

Elizabeth looked at the group across the room from her and sighed.

Her younger daughter was looking even more infatuated than she had before. Teddy had been the hero of the ceremony, absolutely, and it seemed like a good moment to talk to him, now that the wild crowd was gone.

Also, now that the crowd was gone, he and Mina came under the scrutiny of no less than three very curious aunts, who were now standing a few meters from them, in conference with Georgiana and Lucy, so it would also be a good time to intervene, before Kitty went into the overprotective mode.

She pulled on William's hand, leading him to where Mina and Teddy were sitting, quietly ignoring everyone and focused very much on each other. Rose was sitting a few chairs from them, intently poking at something dark with a wooden skewer. She looked up when they approached.

"Glue," she said enigmatically.

"Come again?"

"It was glue, Mom. See? It has seeped through the fabric and the rings got stuck to it. Not sure what kind of glue, but there had to be _a lot_ of it, because the whole bottom of this thing is covered with it..." she waved the box insert at them "but it came out easily because the box was smooth. The rings were stuck in it like that," Rose mimicked the direction "and so the glue seeped through and made a little... blockade. That kept the rings stuck. Like a glue padlock."

William took the piece of shaped velvet-covered plastic and pried it apart carefully.

"I will be having a little talk with the jeweller," he sighed. "That was..."

"Ghastly," she finished. "And that's why we are here. Teddy..."

The boy looked up guiltily, tearing his attention away from Mina.

William inhaled slowly.

"Thank you, Theodore. It was... It was good job. Sorry about your trousers."

"Oh..." Teddy stood up, looked down at his legs and grimaced. "Mother won't be happy, I suppose. But, all in a good cause. I saw it ricochet to the side and go under these chairs, so I thought I was probably the only one who knew where to look for it. And, well..." he looked away self-consciously. "I was probably the only one _not_ in a suit. Can't imagine your guests trying to fetch that ring from under the radiator."

"Well, then..." William smiled at him - Elizabeth squeezed her husband's hand. "Maybe you'd like to join us for dinner? I could give your parents a call and then someone would drive you home later in the evening?"

Teddy sighed and shook his head with obvious regret.

"I still have stuff to do today, I promised Mom some chores... I'll have to be heading home in ten minutes."

"Sorry to hear that," Elizabeth reached out to shake his hand. "I will have a slice of cake set aside, Mina can take it to school on Monday."

Teddy frowned and shot Mina a glance, but didn't manage to get a word out.

"Yeah, I'll put it in a box. Mom made Schwarzwald torte, so it's all chocolate, cherries and whipped cream."

"Thank you... Mrs Darcy," Teddy straightened a bit. "Very much appreciated. And I hope the rest of the evening goes without any more - well - excitement."

_It is a wonder whole school isn't in love with that boy._

"Thank you, Teddy," William squeezed his shoulder. "We will definitely try to keep it to reasonable level. Mina, we'll be leaving in ten minutes or so, so..." he shrugged and nodded at the two of them shortly. "Be in the cloakroom in five."

Elizabeth heard her younger daughter's soft confirmation and smiled as Teddy sank back to the chair he had been sitting on and Mina leaned on him again, quite silently.

 

#

 

The catering company had been let in by the few groundskeepers that had stayed behind for that specific purpose. The large dining room oak table was moved to the side, a few "technical" tables were lined up with warming stations set up on top of them, a table of salads and cold dishes next, juices, water and sweets following.

A group of very kind servers manned the main table, helping everyone to fill their plates and making sure nobody managed to pull one of the hot objects on themselves. As soon as they entered and the kids ran away in all directions, Elizabeth was taken aside by the head of the serving crew and consulted on the exact time when she wished for her cake to be brought in. Soon, most everyone had found themselves something to eat and settled around the main table or, in case of the kids, at the smaller table overseen by a caretaker who was tasked with ensuring that there would be next to no food throwing and that everyone would eat at last one piece of vegetable each ("Mowe sausage!" "Evelyn! You will eat at least _one_ carrot!") and that everyone had enough juice.

Their parents could relax, at least for the time being, and the discussions around the table flew freely, with Mina and Rose listening intently and Jackie trying to behave Like A Grownup as much as she could (in fear of being relegated to the kids' table).

"How long are you staying?" William turned to Evan, who was wandering around the room and making photos of everyone.

"Evan's CO decided that he can, after all, give his main diver a weekend off in November" Richard rolled his eyes expressively. "So we have time until tomorrow evening, just for the family."

"Oh, that's nice," Elizabeth gestured with her fork. "Any plans?"

"Just want to show him the neighbourhood" Richard waved around. "He is mainly stuck in port _or_ out, on a dive and when he finally gets a few days off, he sleeps for most of the time, so it's his first whole weekend in Derbyshire."

"How did the two of you meet?" Mary was watching Jimmy stuff himself full of peas, but managed to hold a conversation at the same time. "If Evan is stationed in one of the Navy bases... And you are mostly stuck on _your_ base, blowing stuff up?"

"Ah."

Richard was _blushing_.

Elizabeth noticed Mina watching the proceedings with fascination. She and Richard seemed to have mostly buried the hatchet, but still there was something stiff in their interactions. Probably she still hadn't _exactly_ forgiven her godfather his idiotic attempt at terrorising Teddy after the concert, so whatever caused him discomfort was of interest to her.

"He doesn't want to admit it, because it sounds so cliche, but we met during the Pride Parade" Evan patted Richard's arm fondly. "I was there, in my very proper sailor's uniform, my fifth event, I already knew what was what and how it goes... It's hot, it's in full uniform and everyone has to march for what seems to be _hours_. But hey, I joined every year, because _come on_."

"And for me it was the first parade ever, so... I didn't. Or if I knew, I didn't factor in the temperature and the distance and, like a stupid tyro, forgot to drink enough beforehand, so I..."

"Swooned."

"Blacked out."

"You totally swooned, Richard. And because we were marching right behind you..."

"I came to and saw that absolutely fit bloke holding me and trying to revive me. And it kind of... evolved."

"So, let me get this clear" judging by her sweet tone, Mina was having definitely too much fun. "Uncle Richard fainted like a Regency lady in a too-tight corset and Evan came to his rescue?"

"It would seem so" Rose confirmed in an equally sugary voice.

"This is just..." Mina scrunched her nose. "Precious. Oh, I'm gonna treasure this forever. And maybe, just maybe, one day, I will consider retelling this to Teddy."

"Oh, you little...!" Richard straightened. "You wouldn't."

Mina sat up and smiled.

"Just like you wouldn't try to tease your only, darling, beloved goddaughter by trying to scare her boyfriend away, would you, uncle Richard?"

Stares were exchanged.

Richard frowned, watching Mina sit back, her arms crossed.

And then yelped and ducked, avoiding the next smack aimed at the back of his head.

"You've been trying to scare away her _boyfriend_ , you idiot?" Evan was brandishing a rolled-up newspaper that had just delivered the hit. "And then you had the temerity to complain to me that she was _for some reason_ not enthusiastic about seeing you!?"

"He said he would consent to me dating once I turn eighteen" Mina informed Evan gladly. "And Teddy has been at his base for a part of his Army Cadets camp, so uncle Richard is kind of like his commanding officer, in a way. There should be some rule saying that your CO should not make it his business who you want to kiss."

"Actually" Evan finally managed to utter - once he stopped laughing. "There are several rules saying exactly that. And anyway, army regulations don't apply to the Cadets, because they are not actually _in_ the Army."

"Does this mean that uncle Richard was usurping himself some kind of power he doesn't have really?"

"Well, I still _am_ your godfather."

"And I still _do_ know you swooned into Evan's arms" she pointed out, grinning. "Nothing wrong about it, it's absolutely sweet and adorable, mind you. I'm sure my _boyfriend_ would be delighted to hear that story."

"You are a cruel little monster."

"Takes one to know one" she stuck out her tongue at him.

 

#

 

"So, well" Jane stood up from her place next to Elizabeth and looked at everyone gathered at the table. "Now, guys. Listen for a moment. As the matron of honour - because come on, no way you're saddling me with the 'bridesmaid' title, Liz - I have to say a few words. Liz, Will. I'm so glad you two finally got here. You seem to be doing everything in the wrong order, up to and including having your teenage daughters as parts of your wedding ceremony. And yet, it kind of fits. Elizabeth did a lot of things completely differently from everyone else. She always was my favourite sister - sorry, Mary, Kit, but it's simple maths, I've known her longer than any of you - and I always felt I had to take care of her or she would not survive her teen years. She walked around with her nose stuck in a book, a bit like Belle. But unlike Belle, she focused very much on said book and paid no attention to her surroundings and tended to walk into road signs, lantern posts and people. I'm still surprised she actually noticed Will at all - not that he isn't noteworthy, but simply because she always seemed to be either reading, coding or baking. Blokes weren't, as she said, 'in the scope' of her Project: Elizabeth. I was honestly surprised when they showed up to our wedding as a couple. Now, thirteen years after the most explosive argument in our family, ever, you two are back together again and... Hopefully, this time for good?"

Elizabeth leaned on William's warm shoulder and smiled.

"So, from the Bennet side - welcome to the family, Will. Ignore the naysayers, don't pay attention to whoever tries to make you feel a stranger and remember that the important ones know you love Lizzy and Lizzy loves you. You don't need anyone's validation for your relationship, you just have to _be_. Thank you for taking the brave step and joining us. Remember, we are always here for you two."

"That sounded like a threat..." Elizabeth mumbled.

"Yes, because we're also here to straighten the two of you out, if needed. Now, Charles and I have a little gift for you. Because, as we've already determined, you two are rather challenging to buy presents for, we were... creative. So, knowing Elizabeth's need for aesthetic in small details and William's appreciation of architecture and urban solutions, we've put together a little trip for you. Everything is booked and organised, you two just need to pack enough warm clothes and go. You leave on the New Year's Eve."

Elizabeth took the thick folder and looked at it in alarm.

"But... But we can't just leave for two weeks! I mean, the girls...!"

"And here is where _my_ part of the gift comes handy" Mary chimed in. "An offer of two weeks... teenager-sitting. As a parent of a kid exempt from school this year, I have certain flexibility in my plans. School holidays are until the 5th, so during the first week they will be home anyway, and I think we can cover that part with Georgina, quite nicely. Same for the first week of school. You two go and enjoy your trip. I know for a _fact_ that neither of you had ever been to Finland, Lizzy has been to Amsterdam once and William to Stockholm, twice. Make use of the time. Do a lot of silly shopping. Celebrate William's birthday!"

Elizabeth felt William's arm around her shoulders.

"Y-yeah" she took a shaky breath. "Thank you all!"

"On that note..." Georgiana rose and smiled. "Here is _my_ present."

_Two printed pages, two permission slips... for a school trip?_

She looked up at her sister-in-law, not comprehending what it meant.

"The promised school trip to London leaves tomorrow mid-day," Georgiana explained. "And I will be going as an additional guardian. So you will have the house to yourselves."

"B-but, how did you..." Elizabeth blinked, staving off tears.

"Well... these two have more than just you as legal guardians. I _am_ Rose's and Mary is one for Mina. So we signed the trip forms for them and I signed up to go with them. Each six children need one adult to stay with them in their room."

"And the trip is ending on Friday, but Rose and Mina will stay with us until Sunday and we will drive them up here for dinner" Kitty added. "Georgiana needs to come back, with the other kids, but she and Mary already set it up so the girls don't have to."

"In the same spirit..." Richard smiled at Evan and brought their tightly clasped hands up to his lips. "You can call on us and claim a need for someone to tire these two out on any weekend this school year. We promise we will be careful and won't break them. Evan will... Evan has resigned from the Navy, effective end of November, and is moving to Matlock and being hired as civilian consultant. He will be a diving teacher, too, so we can offer the girls some excitement, I suppose."

William straightened, looking at Rick with suspicion.

"And yes, William, I'm not an idiot. I proposed."

The dining room went silent.

"I was actually planning to propose, too" Evan's slightly-accented tenor carried a note of laughter. "I made all these plans, handed in my resignation, bought the ring, planned my speech, found two new jobs in the area... Had arguments ready that it's easier to be a civilian diver than civilian ordnance expert and this one" he punched Richard's shoulder "cut me off! Like a barbarian! On his knees and everything!"

Mina giggled.

Richard glared at her, slightly offended, but when Evan's laughter joined hers, soon everyone was chortling.

"OK, you... you all dreadful people" Elizabeth wiped off her tears. "Congratulations, boys! Oh, dear. That is... I mean, these are wonderful gifts! And I mean it. I absolutely know it _is_ hard to find something appropriate for Will and I am living here, so I know exactly what he has. Bloody _everything_. But there is one thing that I found that caught my eye... I was considering holding onto it until January, but then... and it will work even better now, especially as we will be in Sweden on your birthday! Girls?"

Rose reached under the table and together with Mina they hauled out a large, dark wood box. With Evan's help they put it on an empty dish trolley and wheeled it closer to William.

She saw his fingers tremble, just a bit, as he opened the clasps holding the wooden cover shut.

"Oh, Lizzy...! It's lovely, but..."

"Fully functional. No buts."

"But how...? I mean, I always wanted one, but it seemed like such a waste of paper and..."

"Shut up, William" Charles suggested amicably. "You got your wished-for typewriter. Now you can write your terrible novels in style."

"Charlie!"

"What? Have you ever read them?"

Jane rolled her eyes.

"All of them. Remember who got Lizzy hooked on the series..."

Elizabeth turned to her sister, unable to form a sentence.

"You... you awful, awful... You...!"

"You broke her" Charles said with a small smile. "Yes, Jane gave you the first three, but you were the one who bought the rest of it!"

"Well..." Kitty coughed. "I suppose now you can get it at the source."

"Kitty!"

 

#

 

The rest of the evening was spent in a delightful manner, with some dancing - mostly ballroom dances, and Richard had vowed to teach Rose waltz, if she wanted to _and_ danced with Mina, who had finally allowed herself to be convinced to agree. Others took a turn more or less gracefully, Evan happily pairing up first with Lucy, then with his nieces-to-be (despite Rose's token moan that she doesn't know how to) and ending up with Richard, who fluidly caught him and pulled him across the floor in a quick attempt at a tango.

Kitty and Ted added their present - a voucher for a SPA weekend for two - to the thick folder from Jane and Charles, the children crowded to hand them their well-wishing cards (some still shedding glitter) and there were some hugs and rather sticky kisses to be had by everyone.

"And we have one more thing," Charles pulled an envelope from Jane's handbag and pushed it in Elizabeth's direction. "We've... liberated it from the mail heap at your parents' place. Was stuck between credit card offers and a garden tools catalogue, so it's not like they held it there on purpose, but your father's tendency to not pay attention to their post is the likely culprit."

She prodded it cautiously.

"What is it?"

"Well, it's not like we opened it," Jane pointed out reasonably. "But it does have the logo of Imperial College on the..."

Elizabeth didn't hear anything after that. She snatched the letter and looked it all over. Yes. Her name - old name, now - and the logo of Imperial and a date stamp - three weeks previous - and a return address of the Faculty of Engineering.

"Lizzy?" William's warm breath washed over her cheek. "What is it?"

"Not sure," she turned the envelope slowly in her hands. "But..."

Silently, he handed her a clean knife.

There were several pieces of paper inside. She picked up the first one, trying to understand.

"They are inviting me to a conference," she read the cover letter slowly. "As a guest speaker."

Jane emitted a small squeak.

"But why would they send me an actual... ah..." she pulled a smaller piece of paper, hand-written.

"Mary?"

"Ye-es?"

"Do you still keep in touch with that nice criminal attorney, Timothy?"

"Yes, from time to time. Why?"

"I'm going to kill our father and I'm going to need a defence lawyer."

 

#

 

Only after she calmed down and drank another cup of tea, Elizabeth explained to all present the whole idiotic rigmarole of her father being the most prominent reason her so-called academic career died before it properly started, which was capped, right now, by him not passing along the information that the Imperial was trying to contact her - under her old address and phone number. Which her father had apparently answered (it was her parents' landline after all) and then promptly failed to pass the information on to her or to share her current mobile number with the kind lady seeking contact.

"So they decided to write, probably assuming a hardcopy will be harder to lose. Well, with the history we have with letters, I would never be that sure about, but well, it helped in this case."

"So, what do they want?"

Elizabeth shook her head.

"Not sure, really. They have a conference and I fit their profile - not sure how they see it, I have never even been a teacher - so they want me to submit an abstract and ask me to kindly contact them by phone for more details..." she blinked, words on the next page going blurry.

William turned her hand to read it over her shoulder.

"...following successful presentation... would be interested in regular cooperation... meaningful contribution... real-life experience outside of academia... expose our students to range of fascinating... Lizzy? I think they want you to deliver some kind of regular thing."

She found herself a little short of breath.

"They..."

"Seems that after that conference - if it all goes well - they want you to be a regular speaker, due to your experience in the industry and chance to show the kids what the real work in that field is about."

"Oooh," Mary breathed. "You won't have to kill Dad. He will burn of jealousy. Imperial wants you to be a regular guest speaker. Dad _hates_ them because they didn't want him on the board of something or other."

"The Program Board for Computer Engineering Department maybe?" William's voice was quivering with mirth.

"Sounds like that, yes..." Mary trailed off and Elizabeth raised her eyes just in time to see her snatch another part of the letter from William's fingers. "They didn't!"

"They absolutely did," her husband countered.

 

#

 

After Elizabeth had taken a small break in the bathroom, washing her face with cold water and undoing the elaborate combination of hair and ribbons, finally allowing her head to rest.

She looked up, into the mirror, into the face of _Elizabeth Darcy_ for the very first time.

"Imperial wants you. _The_ Imperial wants you. It's not Oxford, or Cambridge. But it's _Imperial_. Elizabeth, Imperial wants you to present something on their conference. You will be calling them on Monday, you will be a big girl and you will agree. And you will write the abstract and work with them like a bleeding professional we all know you are. Clear?"

Her reflection was as pale, freckled, sharp-nosed and wide-eyed as always. She didn't look like a lecturer. She didn't feel like a lecturer. Could she do it?

She sighed, squeezed her eyes shut and waited.

No. Nobody jumping out with a camera to take a quick candid of her and then laugh at her expense forever. This was happening. Imperial asked her for a lecture and suggested they would be open to cooperation if she did well.

She straightened a bit and smiled at the girl in the mirror. She still looked terrified, but at least she didn't look so shell-shocked as before.

_Because, demmit,_ _**Imperial** _ _wants me._

_Second in rank university in London and they want Elizabeth Bennet..._

_...yeah, well. Darcy. And what about the move, I mean..._

_...damn._

"Lizzy? Are you having a crisis of conscience in there or have you fainted and hit your head? I'm coming in in five if you don't answer!"

"Calm down, Jane. Just... just trying to wrap my head around it. I mean, _Imperial_!"

"Yeah, Imperial. Come out of there and join the party - there is still that whole cake of yours and Kitty is sending William murderous looks, so please, come back?"

She sighed and combed her hair back.

"Coming. Get me something cold to drink. Lemonade with a heap of crushed ice. I'll be back in a minute."

"OK, but if you're not out when I get back from the kitchen, I'll let your husband take the door off the hinges."

_You can do it, Lizzy. This is family._

 

#

 

The cake was a success - with everyone except for poor Evan, who turned out to be allergic to chocolate (but he stole most of Richard's whipped cream and several cherries that hadn't touched the dreaded brown poison) - and _some_ children managed to steal entire second slices from their fathers (Charles received a replacement slice and the sounds Evelynosaur made when she dug into her ill-gotten gains were totally worth it).

"Now, Lizzy," Kitty set her cup down and leaned closer to her. "You have seen them, William has seen them and Mina's boyfriend has seen one of them, but none of us have. So, can we _please_ see your rings?"

Elizabeth rolled her eyes and extended her hand to Kitty from where she was sitting in William's lap.

"We've decided that since we are probably a couple unlike any others in this house, we will have a set that is unlike any others before."

"Some people use their parents' rings," Elizabeth shuddered. "We wanted our own, fresh and, well..." she looked up at William.

"Ours," he finished succinctly. "They are tungsten and platinum. Felt appropriate."

"The jeweller in town wasn't very happy, he is more of a traditional gold is good for everyone kind of guy."

"Very nice," Kitty pronounced it with gravity. "But what about your engagement ring? I mean..."

"Oh, this was much more traditional," Elizabeth showed her the other hand. "I think it's early nineteenth century, Will?"

"Late eighteen, more like," he shrugged. "Nobody knows precisely."

"But..." Kitty frowned. "It's so... so _plain_. I mean, no disrespect, William, but come on, it's so... erm... bland? I mean... no, you know, no diamonds?"

William sighed and Elizabeth felt him move to sit more comfortably for the discussion that was guaranteed to ensue. She took a moment to kiss him by surprise and turned back to Kitty.

"Before he begins - and William has his pet peeves like everyone else - I'm going to give a precis. The diamond industry is a world-wide sham, the whole hype about them being absolutely necessary for an engagement ring is just very good PR, they managed to put product placement about the rings everywhere _and_ the people who originally thought of this idea had limited the diamond market on purpose in order to squeeze more money out of it by limiting the supply. In short, buying a diamond ring makes some very smart bozo richer because his papa had a bright idea to convince you and everyone else that diamonds are valuable. Sorry, Ted."

"No offense taken," her brother-in-law rolled his eyes good-naturedly. "I never dug into the topic, but I remember hearing about it all being a hype several years ago. Didn't pay attention - not like I was looking for a new ring, was I?"

"I bloody well hope not," Kitty poked him in the ribs. "I kind of see it, but... this looks rather, I don't know."

"Like a piece of a weird sculpture?" Elizabeth laughed. "It's even better. Look."

She twisted the ring slowly off her finger, suddenly noticing they had gained an audience.

"Now, when we look at it, it's two hands holding each other, right?"

Mina and Rose joined them, one at each of her shoulders.

"This is what is called a fede gimmel ring. It means that this is not one ring, but..." she twisted the whole thing "...three."

A small 'ooh' from her side made her smile.

And Kitty's suddenly widening eyes at the sight of a garnet heart hidden by the clasped hands were a reward all by themselves.

"That's why you saw _three_ rings when they were on the lawn!"

Rose whistled.

"Nice. How do you make them one ring again?"

"Well, it is a bit of a puzzle. You can try to solve it," Elizabeth handed her older daughter the rings and reclined into William's arms, watching Rose try to put it back together.

It was nice.

She closed her eyes and turned her face to let it rest against William's shoulder.

Nice.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A fede ring that comes apart to be a puzzle would be like one of [these](https://i2.wp.com/www.britishmuseum.org/collectionimages/AN00088/AN00088342_001_l.jpg?zoom=2) (Elizabeth's ring is made of 3 bands, not 5)


	32. To ward off winter chill - p1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The trip to London, some quiet fluff, some more fluff, some arguing...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, this one took way longer than expected and next part is still undergoing a major overhaul.  
> I wanted to finish posting the whole thing before Christmas, but we are still 3 story months from the actual finale, so...

Two suitcases were sitting in the main hall late Sunday morning. Elizabeth eyed them suspiciously, but decided not to comment. The twins would be in London, with Georgiana _and_ they had mobile numbers to most of the family in case they needed something.

"Don't worry about them," Georgiana dragged her bag in. "Mina will be on her old stomping grounds and Rose can cope with almost everything, right? They are having breakfast right now and then the buses will be at school around noon. We're leaving at two, so, adding all the toilet breaks etc we should be in London by seven, tops. I will be sending updates."

Elizabeth nodded slowly and sank down to sit on the steps, pulling her cardigan about her.

"That feels weird," she finally managed to put the right words to it. "I just got married, yesterday. I changed my name, my... everything. And now my _two_ daughters are leaving for a school trip, _together_. Do you know... It's just..."

William's quiet steps made her turn and look up.

He looked slightly rumpled, but that was to be expected after the night they had had (which was quite fine, thank you, and fond smirks of her older sister when they met in the hall were not going to affect the afterglow!). The nascent beard was putting a slight shade on Will's face - it was probably the first day for a month and change that he had skipped shaving - and the scrape of his stubble on her cheek when he leaned closer sent little shivers all through her rather weary frame.

"Will, the girls are leaving after lunch," she managed to point out. "Maybe you should drop them off at school? This way Georgie won't have to worry about leaving her car there long-term."

A long mm-hmm purred into her ear.

"First, coffee," she said decisively, standing up. "Come on, mister. We need to up your caffeine to the 'conversation possible' level."

 

####

 

The buses were waiting, kids milling about, teachers trying to check the lists and drivers watching it all with bored eyes of seasoned professionals, pouring themselves cups of coffee from their thermal flasks and munching on sandwiches.

Dad pulled their cases from the boot while Aunt Georgiana slung her bag onto her shoulder and lifted the guitar case with the other hand.

"I expect you two to be careful and behave," Dad warned them in an undertone. "I mean it. And listen to Georgiana, don't make her life harder than it will be anyway."

Mina rolled her eyes, but Rose nodded and poked her sister in the ribs.

"We will, Dad. Thanks for dropping us off."

"Go home, tell Mom we'll be fine."

"Scram, Will. We need to report that we are present and load our luggage. Give our love to Elizabeth and just, you know, make use of that week."

Rose rolled her eyes and picked up her suitcase and backpack, Mina following suit.

Dad hugged them tightly and pressed a long kiss on each forehead.

"Now, I know you two have your cards and your allowances _and_ Georgiana will be with you most of the time, but..." he pulled out his wallet and counted out a few notes. "Just in case, OK? Keep the cash in different places on yourselves - in an internal pocket, some in the backpack, some in your trouser pockets... just so that you have a few quid whatever happens, clear?"

Rose sighed and hugged him back.

"Clear. And we know how to get to aunt Jane's if something happens and we have all the mobile numbers and we have aunt Georgiana's number written on paper and we remember the address where we'll be staying. And I will stay with Mina and Mina knows London, so we won't get lost. Really, dad."

"My rational Rose," he ruffled her hair a bit. "Mina, make sure she doesn't fall into the Thames or some pond in the park, will you?"

"I'll try," her sister snorted. "If she listens to me. But, seriously, dad, she can take care of herself. She _did_ survive being there mostly on her own for three weeks and she had to pretend being me at the same time. At least now we will be ourselves."

Dad sighed, but let them go, so they ran quickly towards the teachers who were holding lists, checking everyone off and directing them to the buses.

 

#

 

Miss Yang, handling the list for their group, directed them to the fourth bus in the lot, ordering them to put their cases in the storage and find places as soon as they can and stop standing around in cold, if they could. Please. They absolutely did, as the wind was picking up and it seemed to be getting much more chilly than in the previous days.

Their cases safely stored, they had checked themselves in with the teacher managing the list for their bus and started making their way inside, looking for someone to sit near.

What they weren't expecting to see was a lean, long-legged Year 10 sitting by one of the windows.

"And what are _you_ doing here?" Rose asked, looking at him with exasperation.

"There are too many people in our bus - one of the seats was broken or something - and they asked for a volunteer to ride with the younger year," Teddy smiled innocently. "I was only trying to be helpful. I hope you don't mind."

Rose snorted and looked back at her sister.

" _I_ don't, but you should ask your girlfriend what she thinks about you being an insistent little stalker."

"Rose!"

Mina looked between the two of them, trying to make a decision. There was no way one of them wouldn't feel hurt if she sat with the other one, and now...

"Mina, are you sitting down?" aunt Georgiana was standing behind her and this whole situation was becoming even more tense.

"Sit with him, you ninny," Rose grabbed her sister's sleeve and forcefully sat her next to Teddy. "You, let her have the window seat for some time. I will sit with aunt Georgie. And I will be _watching you two_."

"Well, so will I," added aunt Georgiana. "Hello, Teddy."

He rose from the seat and gave her a half-bow.

Mina took her water bottle and her tablet out of her backpack and pushed them into the net pocket in front of her, not looking up at Teddy for a moment.

"You don't want to sit with me?" he sighed. "I mean... It will..."

"It's not _that_. It's just..." she looked up finally. "Aren't we pushing it a bit? I mean, that whole dating rules stuff...?"

"For one, your aunt and your sister are sitting across the aisle from us. We will be chaperoned better than an average Regency pair. Two, the classes will be separated for most of the week, so it's not like we'll have a lot of time to just, you know. Talk, or stuff."

"I hope you two aren't going to be talking all the way," Tatiana leaned over their seats from the back. "Because if you go into 'too sweet' category, I _am_ going to be sick."

"Don't even talk about being sick, or _I_ will be sick!" someone cried from even further back.

Mina looked at Rose in despair and all Rose could do was to shrug.

"Put on your headphones and don't listen to them," she advised. "And think about all the things that we can show them in London, yeah?"

Suddenly the nearest few seats went silent as their occupants realised what kind of resource they had at their disposal.

"Oooh. I kind of forgot. Darcy, you've lived in London all your life. Are you going to be our guide? Or something?"

"I want to just go there, see the sights, you know. Like everyone else. If you are nice, I _may_ give you hints on what to buy where, but I don't think we'll have a lot of time for shopping," Mina rolled her eyes.

"Actually, on that note," Mr Anders, one of the physics teachers, rang a small bell, asking for their attention. "If I can have everyone sit down...? Thank you. The program is, in fact, rather packed, but there will be a half-day period for all of you to go shopping, explore a bit and just look around. Although, due to the size of the whole group, we will not allow you to run completely free, so each set will have to go with their guardian and negotiate internally on what they wish to see. Make sure not to annoy your guardians too much then. Very well. First point - check who you are sitting with. For every trip that we take as the whole big group, sit with the same person. This way we will be able to quickly report when that person is missing. Second, most of the time we will divide you according to form groups and these trips will be taken using public transport. At these times, each of you has to stay with their adult guardian. The assignments are as follows. Miss Darcy! Thank you for volunteering, you have... ah, I see..." he smiled "Darcy, Darcy, Harrington, Chou and Mayhew. Miss Owens, please show yourself, thank you. Your charges are..."

Rose let it wash over her. At least their group would be reasonable. And with Mina they'd be able to steer whatever free time they were granted to something interesting.

"Strickland, you are with Mr Evans, David's father. Remember to report to him when we're finally at the hostel. Everyone knows who they are with? Perfect. Let's get this show on the road then. Everyone! We will be at the hostel in four hours or so, barring any unexpected stops. There will be supper waiting for us and then a gathering to present the program for the coming days. Is this clear?"

A chorus of "yeahs" allowed him to finally sit down.

The bus started a bit shakily and rolled out of the parking lot. Mina closed her eyes and leaned on Teddy's arm, revelling in the proximity, the well-worn flannel of his shirt soft under her cheek.

His hand went around her and hugged her closer.

_Sneaky, sneaky Teddy._

_Well, as long as aunt Georgiana isn't protesting..._

She opened her eyes slightly and saw Rose smirking at her.

Shrugging, she burrowed closer into Teddy's warmth.

_London, here I come._

_Did you change a lot?_

_I sure did._

_I'm a Darcy now._

She glanced at Rose, just to make sure her sister actually was there now.

_I am a Darcy now._

_And there are two of us._

 

####

 

Rose wasn't sure she was more looking forward to or dreading seeing London again. There was that feeling of going back to something, despite the fact that she had lived there for less than a  month. On the other hand, it _was_ the place where she had met Mom…

Mina smiled at her from where she was snuggled up to Strickland -- Teddy. That boy was becoming more and more a part of their lives, somehow, unexpectedly. Rose tried tasting her feelings about it, but there was nothing more severe than a bit of vague resentment about someone stealing Mina's time. She wasn't jealous anymore (as several of their classmates had suggested she should be), because of what? She had all Mina's time at home and most of it at school already and it was already more than some sisters had. Looking at Mom and aunt Jane and Mary - and Kitty - each relationship between sisters was unique, but nobody had what she and Mina did. And all that based on knowing each other for scant four months! As to Teddy... If she looked closer at how aunt Jane treated Dad - with a bit of an eye-roll for his various foibles - and how Mom casually smacked uncle Charles or hugged uncle Ted (and thank all heavens uncle Ted was just _Ted_ , not another Theodore, or they'd be in for some severe name duplication trouble…) - it was good to have a brother in law. Or sister's boyfriend, keeping it realistic - at their age. She watched them for a moment as Teddy absentmindedly rubbed his cheek on Mina's hair and closed his eyes with a small sigh.

Was she jealous? Would she want to have the same with… with someone? Maybe. Perhaps. She frowned and looked away, trying to identify her feelings. One thing for sure, she wasn't jealous of Teddy. Meaning, she wasn’t jealous of Teddy's attentions. Teddy was fine as he was, two seats away, holding her little sister in a loose hug, smiling that goofy smile he tended to present whenever Mina was nearby. No, Teddy definitely wasn’t it. Who would be _it_ , then?

“Everything OK, Rose?”

She shrugged, but then… _Aunt Georgiana may have some better answers_.

“When did you know that Miss Yang was the right person? I mean, you… You met at school and then, what? Was it something specific, or just…”

Aunt Georgiana shot the pair across the aisle a look and smiled.

“What, looking at them makes you think about it?”

“Kind of,” Rose gestured uncertainly. ”I mean, they… People were suggesting Mina took him away from me and I had to explain so many times that I was absolutely and completely fine with it…! I started thinking about, you know, me. What it would look like, I don’t want to ask Mina, because everyone keeps bugging her about him and the last thing she needs now is to confess to me in details, but…” she looked beseechingly at her aunt.

“Oh, OK. I didn't know it was so hard for her…” they looked at the two again and Mina was leaning on Teddy's arm and watching something he was showing her on his phone. “They do look rather fine together, don't they?”

“A bit like Mom and Dad, I think,” Rose whispered. “He is much taller than both of us and kind of darker and, well, _built._ Did you know that half of the girls in school drool over his muscles and legs?”

“Rose!”

“What? He is a rugby player, he runs around in shorts on regular basis. On purpose. I'm not in that half, mind you. Also, it would be kind of weird to be watching my sister's boyfriend like that. But I like the way they look together. And,” she turned to Georgiana and lowered her voice “He is good for her. I mean, the fact that she has him is doing her good. After that fucked up - sorry, sorry - school she was at in London, Teddy is like a completely different species of a boy, you know.”

“I hope this lasts. Not that I expect it to, most of highschool romances end around the time people part for college, but let's hope for a peaceful breakup and not something loud and crazy...”

“Don't even _mention_ this in front of Mina,” Rose shook her head. ”Teddy is a year over us and he has _plans_. Wants to study civil engineering, of all things.”

“That's… big stuff. I mean, this will be a long and rather heavy course. Not a lot of time for leisure…”

Rose nodded slowly.

“None at all, and knowing Teddy, he will be… diligent. And…” she glanced at Mina, checking if she may be listening, but fortunately her sister was focused on someone else. “And he will have the scholarship from the Army, almost like guaranteed. But he will have to sign up for several years after that. To, you know, work it off.”

She heard her aunt's soft curse.

“Poor kitten.”

“Yeah. So I don't want this time, whatever they have, to suck for her more than it has to, you know. So I don't want to interrogate her for details and stuff. Let them be. Mom and Dad are putting enough pressure on her anyway.”

“Does Mina know about his plans?”

“Yep. I was there when he told her about the conditions of the scholarship. She just doesn't know his application is already as good as approved. He doesn't know either, mind you, so don’t spill it.”

Her aunt looked at her with narrowed eyes.

“How do _you_ know it then?”

“Uncle Richard can't keep a secret worth a damn. Well, from me, at least. And he is worried about Mina, too, kind of, you know, after that thing he did after the singing contest, but he feels he can't really like talk to her… because he is afraid he will mess up. But he told me, to watch out for Mina when Teddy gets the news.”

“Richard, you sneaky bastard,” her aunt sighed. ”He kept calling me for updates on Mina every other day... Well, I see your point about not asking Mina, absolutely… so as to me and Lucy, well…” she bit her lip. ”It kind of just felt right. We were in that classroom, talking about music and about playing the harp and the piano and I looked at us holding hands and thought ‘I could do it all day’ and then she… it was like she saw me seeing her… and I couldn't look away and then…” she sighed. “It was just that feeling that hey, this is nice and she makes me feel like…” she lowered her voice “not sure how to put it. But it's like I matter, as a person.”

“Bbbut, you always matter! You…” Rose whispered, shocked. “You are important! You are my aunt! Like the… well, not that I'm demoting you, but half a year ago you were the second most important person in my life!”

“I suppose Elizabeth holds the first place now” Georgiana joked weakly.

That gave Rose a pause and she quieted for a moment, examining her feelings. “Actually... no. She does,” Rose gestured to the other side of the aisle. "Mom is important, but Mina is _more_ important."

“That makes sense,” her aunt sighed. “You two should have never been separated, so now you are catching up… Don't worry, I feel quite fine being in just top five most important people in your life, actually. But Lucy - with Lucy it was different - she saw me, as me, you know. Georgiana Darcy and not just someone's aunt or sister. She saw me and she thought I was interesting for myself. It's like with Mina and Teddy and you. You love her as a sister, and that's in a big part just because she is a part of you and you love her as that other you, but Teddy sees her as a separate person, interesting for being Mina Bennet. Or rather, of course, Mina Darcy. Lucy looks at me and sees someone who likes music the same way she does and who is interesting and interested… you know. It is a different thing.”

Rose nodded slowly, although she didn't really fully understand it. But it seemed like a good explanation, or part of one. Definitely something she could keep in mind and _maybe,_ at an opportune moment, discuss with Mina.

“So…” she licked her lips and looked up at her aunt searchingly. “How did you know you liked girls more than boys?”

Georgiana sighed.

“Full of interesting questions today, aren't we?”

“Sure. Well?”

 

####

 

Mina watched Rose and aunt Georgiana talking and glancing at them from time to time, but she firmly chose not to care. They could look all they wanted. She was doing nothing wrong and neither was Teddy.

She closed her eyes for a moment and just… _was_. It was nice to just be. Teddy was a warm, steady presence against her side, the engine of the bus was growling and burbling, the slight movement was making her sleepy.

Teddy was… nice. She wasn’t sure about whys and hows, but thinking about Teddy made her a little warmer and maybe a tiny bit giddy.

_Oh._

He was leaning against her, too.

That made her a bit more giddy than before.

“Starlight,” he murmured. “I have some photos from the ceremony I took yesterday. I mean, well… If you want to see them?”

Teddy’s phone was slightly banged up, but worked correctly and had a more than efficient camera. It was weird to look at the whole thing from such a completely different angle, but also rather interesting. Oh, and here was Rose, looking stiff as a board, holding the box… opening the box… and aunt Jane brandishing the multitool.

“Oh my,” she gasped. “She looks as if she was going to kill these poor rings!”

“Well, she almost did murder the ceremony…” he snorted. “I suppose the nice registrar lady doesn't see sharp weapons in that chamber that often.”

“Well, probably not, unless someone tries to claim they know of some impediment and enforce it by additional stabbing. I can imagine some spurned ex-girlfriends would sneak in and try to disrupt the ceremonies from time to time.”

“At least this one didn't end with bloodshed,” he swiped to the next photo, of her dancing with uncle Richard. “You… you looked nice.”

“Thank you,” she looked down.”You looked quite dashing yourself… Did your mother give you grief about the trousers?”

“She never even noticed” he huffed. “I put them in the wash and then dried them, so I could pack them for the trip.”

“Good,” she rubbed her cheek on his shoulder. “You saved the day, you know? I mean it. Rose had been guarding these rings like a dragon and then aunt Jane comes and pliink… hop goes the ring.”

“Well, I just saw where it fell, and…” he shrugged slightly.

“If you didn't, they would have had to get married with something stupid, like a curtain ring or someone's goth skull ring or whatever.”

“Or one with a silly plastic heart…” he mused.

Mina looked up.

“Are you having me on?”

“What?” he smiled innocently.

“You…. you watch stuff like this?”

He turned his nose haughtily up.

“I don't have any idea what you are talking about!”

“You, Teddy Strickland, have watched Four Weddings and a Funeral. How on earth?”

“I will let you know that the movie evenings on the camp were next best thing to obligatory and… eclectic.”

She turned to get a better look.

“So what else did you watch during the army camp?”

He sighed, pretending to be greatly put upon.

“Some classics, some action movies… Well, a bit of sci-fi, obviously…”

“Aaand?” she prompted.

“A musical or two. Singing in the rain, to be specific.”

She raised her eyebrows in mute question.

“And Much Ado about Nothing, OK? Whole bloody…”

“And of course you didn't enjoy it one bit?”

“Not at all!” he claimed immediately.

“And that other musical would be then…?”

Teddy rolled his eyes and mumbled something.

“Can't really hear you.”

“Mamma Mia, ok?”

“My poor, traumatised boy,” she patted his shoulder and pressed a kiss to his cheek. “Who tortured you with this terrible, terrible thing?”

Teddy moaned.

“Your own uncle, if you must know! He is a terrible sap and he watched it all with us! Singing along to the music!”

"And what do _you_ listen to, hmm?" she poked his MP3 player. It was sleek, black and had no display to show the current track title.

And Teddy blushed. Adorably.

_Not that I will ever use that word..._

"Well, I could, you know..." he pulled out his headphones. "Ah. No, well, I'd like to share, but," he showed them to her. Just like hers, they were no earbuds, but full, over-ear ones with a band.

"Well, I have the same problem," she pointed to her own pair. "But I also have a solution."

"Hmm?"

"Mom gave me _this_ ," she pulled out the Y-shaped cable splitter. "Come here, give me your player."

She rolled her eyes impatiently as, sending her a cocky smile, he plucked the splitter from her hand and connected them both to the source of music. Leaning again on his shoulder, she pulled her headphones on.

The intro to the song was familiar, with something like bells, then the piano, then some voices singing "uaa", but...

 

_How many times do I have to try..._

 

"You are listening to Annie Lennox?" she looked at Teddy up and sideways.

"Not you too, ok?" he groaned. "Half of my class is making fun of me because of this already... I thought _you_ wouldn't..."

"Shh. It's nice. I like, well, _Mom_ likes her, so I've been listening to her a lot. She has a really great voice," she closed her eyes and leaned on his shoulder, as much as she could with the big headphones on. "Let's hope there will be no group singing and we can listen in peace."

 

#

 

An hour later she was cursing herself. She might have been better off not saying _that_. They closed their eyes, turned the volume up on Teddy's player and tried not to pay attention to their schoolmates attempting to scream their throats out in poor imitation of some contemporary singers Mina could not identify.

Across the aisle, Rose was chanting quietly to herself while aunt Georgiana looked as if she was in about as much pain as Mina.

 

#

 

Unfortunately their companions managed to keep the racket up almost until they arrived in London. By the time the city loomed on the horizon, Mina and Teddy had been asked several times to join the "fun", to which one answered with a vehement "No!" and the other just rolled his eyes.

"I have the carol contest to think of," she sighed when one of the girls in front of them insisted she should 'sing' with the others. "Mom would never forgive me if I purposefully screamed myself hoarse."

"Oh, don't tell me you are going to keep practising during the trip!" Mariah moaned. "This is supposed to be... not-school. Outside. You know, a _trip_. Do you even know the idea of letting go?"

"Aunt Georgiana will help me with the exercises," she shrugged and turned her face into Teddy's side, smiling softly. "I can't let this one win another contest due to pure negligence, can I?"

"You two are... disgusting."

"Why, thank you," Mina closed her eyes, hoping for some quiet time.  


#

 

The announcements were made once they had been all gathered in the meeting hall of the hostel.

"Everyone knows their guardian, right? Very well. You keep with your mates and your grownup at all times. Take their mobile numbers, add them to your contacts and give them your numbers. If you get separated, call them. If you can't call them, find the nearest police station and ask them to help you. I know you are big children and you know this, but I am required to remind you, so please, don't comment, just listen. Learn the address and the name of this hostel, if you get lost and can't contact anyone, get back here. One of the teachers will be staying behind every time. Now, we have the following plan for the next few days..."

There were plans for common trips, trips in form groups, trips for all Year Nines and all Year Tens separately, free time, optional walks and some organised entertainment planned. Mina and Rose listened attentively to all the destinations, exchanging a few looks and shrugs at the most obvious choices - the British Museum, the Science Museum, Baker Street, Kensington Gardens - while furiously planning their own list of things to see and do around the spots they had already visited.

It was going to be a good week.

 

####

 

The all-day trip to British Museum was preceded by the introduction of the Year Nines to the London public transport system. Mina and Rose were called on to explain the details as "Subject Matter Experts" as Mina dubbed their function and provided their schoolmates with their insight into the intricacies of the Oyster Card and the Tube. Rose admitted to having got lost a few times during her stay in London, warning everyone of the perils of using the Tube in the rush hour.

"And that is why, despite the fact that you've all managed to gather for breakfast in such a timely manner, we will set out only in half an hour. I'd rather not get all of you lost on our way to our destination," Mr Jones pronounced. "We reassemble here, ready to go, at half past ten, everyone."

And so they went. Year Nines to the British Museum while Year Tens, split into groups, were treated to a walk by the Thames and to the Millennium Bridge, then St Paul's Cathedral and then, optionally (all opted in) a walk by the St Bartholomew's Hospital and a visit to the Museum of London. When everyone reconvened in their hostel later that evening, all teenagers reported being "quite done in" and the dinner was a subdued affair, mostly filled with sounds of eating (or, in more extreme cases, discreet snoring).

Mina and Rose, having happily derailed their group at the BM, managed to do some shopping in one of the shops inside and were now reviewing their purchases with their tablemates. Mina was holding onto one of the books rather protectively, claiming nobody would be touching it until she had a chance to inspect their hands for cleanliness.

"She bought '7000 Years of Jewellery'," Rose chewed on a bit of meat. "Don't even try to touch it, she may bite. Mina, if you didn't want anyone touching it, you should have left it in the room, you know?"

Mina sighed and shook her head.

"You just don't understand it. I can't _possibly_ leave in unsupervised!" she declared haughtily. "But you aren't much better, sister. You bought that large package of handmade Indian paper that..."

A hand on her shoulder made her pause and she looked up at Teddy with a smile.

"And here it comes," Mariah remarked dramatically. "I wonder if all of us will one day find a switch-off button like this."

Rose grimaced.

"I hope you are not talking of Teddy as such," she whispered theatrically. "Remember, Mina is the one that punches people."

 

####

 

"What are they doing today?"

Elizabeth pulled her tablet closer by its cable and unlocked it, blinking to focus on the letters.

"Science Museum..." she squinted. "And Globe Theatre. Good, Mina has never seen the Globe, at least she will have something new. And the Science Museum is always nice and has a lot of temporary exhibitions."

"I see an exhibition right _here,_ " he grazed her shoulder with his lips. "I would like to scrutinise it in utmost... detail..."

"William!" she dropped the tablet as she scrambled to hold on to the mattress. "What _are_ you doing?"

"Just admiring the view," he said innocently as he dragged his hand lower and _squeezed_ suggestively.

"You are... ah! doing much more than just - aaaah! - admiring, Mr Darcy!"

"Would you like me to conduct this whole thing completely hands-off, Mrs Darcy?"

Elizabeth hid her face in the pillow and groaned softly, luxuriating in the feeling of William's hands doing... things.

It wasn't that they hadn't had sex before - after all, they did have children! And they had been sleeping together (mostly sleeping, though, due to being generally worn out) for some weeks already.

But this? This was mad. They were like, well, she shied away from the word "teenagers", because she really didn't want to go _there_ , but it seemed to be a rare hour when one or the other wasn't all over their partner. It was definitely more sex that they had had ever before, condensed into scant two days since the house was emptied of everyone but them.

On Sunday evening, they had nipped downstairs to eat a piece of the cake and something resembling dinner and promptly returned to their bedroom and fell into bed again.

On Monday Elizabeth had spent half an hour on the phone with the Imperial, agreeing on the details of her lecture and all the little, insignificant elements like the time and place of the conference and what other lecturers would be invited. She conducted it sitting half-naked in their bed, so it had strained William's self-control considerably to _not_ crawl under the duvet and do unspeakable things to her - ones that would have most probably produced reactions that could have damned her career at the Imperial College before it even took off.

Tuesday was more of the same - checking their mobiles from time to time (in case an emergency arose even Georgiana and Mary couldn't resolve) and falling back on the pillows to continue the activities from the previous days.

That was, until William's _other_ mobile pinged.

"Stacy has a panicking investor at the office, demanding to see me and threatening to withdraw from a deal," he sighed. "Do you think we could... take some air? I could book us a table in Piedaniel's for a dinner?"

She rolled onto her back and frowned at him.

"Ricci's," she countered.

"They don't take bookings."

"Oh, well..." she stretched a bit. "Maybe that Indian place then? Or we could call Ricci's, order a takeaway and come back here?"

He pulled her up and kissed her already swollen lips.

"I was planning to show you off a bit, actually," he explained with a huff. "But if you'd rather come back here, you little minx, I will be glad to... accommodate..."

Elizabeth rolled her eyes and pushed him away lightly.

"Piedaniel's it is," she sighed with a put-upon expression. "The question now would be, what I should wear."

He frowned and shrugged.

"Something reasonably comfortable and warm, I suppose?"

She laughed weakly.

"Oh, William. Will-iam. You have a sister and a daughter - well, two - and still you have no idea, right?"

He tried to loom imposingly, but it is next thing to impossible to be imposing when one stands in the middle of a very messy bedroom in a pair of black boxer shorts, so he quickly gave up after Elizabeth started giggling like crazy.

"OK, what is it that is so funny?" he growled.

"You really don't know, do you?" she smiled. "Or are you having me on? I mean, William, really. You want to show me off - I'm assuming that means you want to parade me around the town a little bit and let everyone see what kind of woman you've married. Silly as it sounds, I have nothing against the notion. I have half a mind to do the same in London, should we have a chance to go there for a longer stay. I'd gladly parade you in front of my distant family and so-called family friends, just to see their stupid expressions. Not that I'm a vindictive little witch, not at all. But... If I wanted to do that, I'd ask you to wear something specific, just to make sure none of them would _ever_ forget seeing you. I'd have to choose between the country squire William Darcy in his olive tweed, the businessman William Darcy in his fitted dark blue three piece or the badboy Will Darcy in his leather jacket and black denims. Therefore, dear, tell me, which of the possible Elizabeth Darcy's do you want to be seen outside with?"

 

#

 

It was the Professional Yet Whimsical Elizabeth Darcy that finally got out of the car in front of the company offices and that William escorted inside. She had unearthed her wine-red pantsuit with almost corset-like waistcoat and ivory silk shirt, twisted her hair into a semi-tame knot and added matching flats. She felt reasonably confident in the way she presented herself, but William's smile as he held the door open for her confirmed she did, in fact, look rather fetching in that set.

"William, thank goodness!" a slightly older man accosted them immediately as they exited the elevator. "I tried to contact you, but your phone seems to be off, and...!"

"Actually, _I_ am off this week," William frowned and looked past the man, to a woman standing by a large potted plant and rolling her eyes. "Stacy should be able to resolve any issues you have. She has the full power of..."

"No, this is not about the contracts... Stacy resolved this for us, very nicely indeed, I was surprised actually. This is about that damned heating thing. I mean, we had just been given copies of that software that is supposed to manage the power and it just... doesn't _do_ anything! I tried turning off the fireplace and upping the temperature and the simulation... Just doesn't work!"

Elizabeth smothered a snort.

William shot her a dirty look and she just raised her eyebrows in question.

"I think you should try one old trick," she suggested mildly, smiling at the exasperated man.

"Turning it off and on again?" he growled. "That's not even funny at this point... and the vendor says everything is in perfect order! I am seriously considering lodging a complaint about that."

Elizabeth made eye contact with the woman by the plant and smiled.

"No, I meant that old trick that's called 'reading the help file'."

"There is nothing about _that_ in the help file...!"

"Jonathan, can you show us?" William intervened smoothly and threaded her arm through his. "I already tested that program and it finally cooperated, your copy shouldn't be that different."

They were led to a meeting room, where two big laptops were set up.

"OK, so what does help say?" Elizabeth asked lightly. "I think..."

"The disconnected operations mode," Jonathan read aloud, voice tense and angry. "Is indicated by the yellow background of the interface. This mode allows the user to simulate changes to a single, disconnected element of the heating system. In order to switch to the full simulation mode, click the red flag..."

The sounds around them dimmed slightly.

"Yeah, click the red flag and mark the needed options," Elizabeth suggested happily. "Now, Will, what about that investor? Stacy will be waiting for you."

"Oh, _now_ it works. Good, finally," Jonathan growled at the screen as William turned to the door.

"It's nice to feel appreciated," Elizabeth smirked and turned to Will.

"Thank you for the suggestion," Jonathan nodded curtly. "I would have gotten there at some point."

She smiled thinly.

"No, I mean, I wrote this," she sighed.

"Oh, the help file, well, that's nice, I suppose. I mean, someone has to," he smiled at her artlessly.

"Love, please stop tormenting my contractors," William leaned closer and pulled her away. "Some of them are still wrapping their heads around the fact that women know which way the keyboard goes up."

Elizabeth rolled her eyes and sighed theatrically.

"I wonder what these will say when they learn you've married a software engineer."

Jonathan choked on his coffee as she sent him a wide smile.

"And mind the settings, you have to include all the elements you want to see connected. That was a pain to write, actually."

 

####

 

The investor pacified, Jonathan quieted by a few more suggestions as to which parts of the manual he should read before he starts arguing with his laptop, Stacy quietly enchanted by Elizabeth (she had poked William in the ribs and murmured her approval), and they had left the office before someone found something _more_ for him to sign, resolve or discuss.

Piedaniel's had a table ready for them and they managed to eat their lunch in a reasonably quiet atmosphere - middle of the week, almost everyone but them at work, a few other pairs similarly very much not paying attention to their surroundings.

"You didn't tell _me_ to read the help file first when I had the same problem," William remarked over pudding. "I am not complaining, but you could have ordered me to read the fffriendly manual," he winked at her.

"At the time, it was quicker this way _and_ Jonathan seemed much more... aggressive about it. He needs to learn to check in the help file by himself anyway."

"I suppose I should, too," he sighed and speared another piece of the apple tart on his fork.

"Nah. You have _me_ , after all."

 

####

 

Considering they had spent their day touring some of the best-known literary spots on the London map - the Kensington Gardens, Paddington Station and Baker Street - it came as no surprise to anyone that the evening entertainment turned out to be a literary quiz. Each team of four was made of two younger and two older students in order to even the odds. Rose just rolled her eyes when Teddy quickly attached himself to them and brought one of his 'mates', Steven, to join them.

They didn't do very badly and, with the number of people participating - fourteen sets - someone had to be the fifth, after all. Rose felt a bit disappointed but they had all agreed that they weren't the best-read team in the room and the first place was won fair and square.

Mina quietly tracked Teddy's answers, checking the books he was certain of (read many times), ones he knew answers about but wasn't perfectly sure (read but long ago/once) and ones at which he grimaced. Finding out that they weren't 100% compatible in their book tastes was actually something of a relief - if they both loved fantasy, old kids books and classics, it wouldn't be as interesting. Teddy turned out to be well-versed in the Bond series (books, as he explained, more than the movies) and knew his way around SF, including "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy". Still, with their common ground being the works of Terry Pratchett, she hoped they could come to some kind of agreement on the topic of favourite quotes.

She leaned on his shoulder with a happy sigh as the program and division of groups for the next day was read.

_I hope we can get Teddy's group with us into the capsule. And maybe aunt Georgiana will allow us to swing by the Paperchase on Cheapside when we go to St Paul's..._

Her head was tipped back - cautiously - and Teddy pressed a small kiss to the corner of her mouth.

"What do you think about tomorrow plans? Have you ever been up there, seen London from that tiny little cars?"

"Don't tell me you are afraid of heights," Rose rolled her eyes.

"Not necessarily, but if it makes someone hug me, I could," Teddy squeezed Mina's arm. "I am, after all, a boy of a rather delicate constitution."

Mina shook her head with silent laughter and kissed his cheek lightly.

"Disgusting," someone murmured behind them.

Mina and Rose stiffened, recognising Davison's voice. They had managed to successfully steer clear of him at school and, with Teddy switching the buses and then being assigned to a room with some reasonable boys, he also mostly avoided James during the trip.

Their luck had apparently run out.

"Oh, just go away, Jim," Steven didn't even turn to look at the annoyance. "Let them be. The fact that your girlfriend told you to get lost doesn't mean you are entitled to making others miserable."

The sound Davison emitted was rather uncivilised, but suddenly there were at least three adults standing around the small group, watching him intently.

"I think it's the time you went to your room, James," one of the teachers remarked mildly. "You have had enough excitement for today."

Mina felt Teddy's hand around her shoulders relax only when Davison finally left the room.

"I just hope he won't be in the same capsule with us," she sighed. "I don't want to spend half an hour with _that_."

Teddy only hummed in assent.

 

####

 

They muddled through Thursday, despite the weather being less than attractive. Staying indoors was of course the solution, but after spending their whole Wednesday in bed, Elizabeth decided they should move. Some vertical activity would be good for them.

William's suggestion to check the site of the new house seemed just perfect, so they pulled on long boots, covered themselves with heavier jackets and set out to see the progress made since the previous week.

"Fortunately the part I picked was already pretty much empty of trees," William explained as they passed through one of the garden gates. "So there won't be much loss here. I told them that all the old trees around the house must be kept as they are, there is ample space for the trucks and machines to come, turn and operate, so there should be no additional trees removed - probably we'll need to add some bushes to cover the balder parts..."

The site was a beehive of activity. The "technical road" that would later become their drive and the parking slot (the yard to-be) were filled with people and tools of various calibres. Long walkways were thrown across the hole in the ground (basement) and the hole itself was showing first signs of becoming something building-shaped. Or rather base-of-a-building-shaped.

"So, correct me if I'm wrong... The drive goes down here," she murmured, trying to again put the whole thing together in her head. "So here are the garage doors, more or less - and the second part of the basement is... what?"

William shrugged innocently and kicked a loose clump of grass and soil with the tip of his rubber boot.

"Maybe storage? A lot of things that we could keep down there. Preserves, for example. You seemed rather intent on making them this year, so I suppose we'll have to make sure we have space to store them... Or, you know, some people keep their workshops in places like that..."

Elizabeth looked down again and saw the separate spaces in the basement, marked with slabs of concrete being fitted in.

"Oh."

"Mhm. There will be a ventilation system installed and once you decide how to set up the interior, we'll connect the specific vents to it, to make sure you have the light and airflow you need. I know that sewing usually doesn't produce a lot of dust, but there will definitely be _some_. And Mina has that Dremel set which she had not had a chance to use yet - well, not a lot - so she could use a table with a good vent, too..."

"You and Rose too," she pointed out, pulling him closer. "Don't make that face, I know you had a kind of workshop in that old shed, Rose told me when she was showing me around the grounds. And she wanted a chance to do some manual stuff, too."

"I made a bird house once. And a feeder."

"M-hm. And a spice rack, and that cute little shelf that Mrs Reynolds needed in the corner and..."

"That was just an experiment. I..." he shrugged. "I didn't really have time to focus on it a lot. We mostly did anything when the school started workshop classes and some idiot wanted to separate girls and boys and make girls embroider handkerchiefs and teach boys to hammer in nails and so on. I still remember one of the mothers - she had an older boy and a girl a year younger - she stood up and claimed that she feels it is completely unfair for her boy to be unable to learn how to embroider a hankie with flowers and the man who was trying to convince everyone that this separation is good just didn't manage to stop himself."

"And?" she looked up and met his eyes, narrowed with mirth.

"He said 'why would you want your boy to learn something that useless?!' and she asked 'so why would I want my _daughter_ to learn it?'. Everyone started giggling and the guy was lost. He didn't understand what was wrong with teaching girls something pretty but... well, not so practical."

"And what happened finally?"

"The 'boy' part was pretty much useless, too, because the first teacher they got was some kind of wood-lover. He talked to them about types of wood and how each of them feels in the hand and so on. I remember Rose coming home one day and asking me if I think that guy kissed his door when he came home instead of his girlfriend. Fortunately they found a new one who went with them through the safety rules, the ways the tools work, like a saw and a hammer and pliers, and why we wear safety goggles and how to operate bigger things, like a jigsaw. And then, once they were done making the bird feeder - which by May was pretty much useless, mind you - they were separated into smaller groups, still mixed gender, and taught how to sew a patch on torn trousers. One of the fathers actually suggested it, saying that he himself wouldn't have minded a sewing lesson or two when he was at school, but why embroidery and not something practical, like mending a sock or sewing a patch. Mending the socks was downvoted - reasonably, I suppose - so they sewed these patches on. I'm afraid that is all the needlework Rose had learnt..." he sighed. "When it comes to this kind of fiddly soft details, I'm all thumbs."

She reached up and pulled him down for a kiss.

"Don't worry. If she wants to learn, I will help her. To balance this out, I will expect you to show Mina how to use a jigsaw, because she was fascinated by them at some point but we never had a chance to use one."

"Oh. Fine, absolutely. We could... Well, a lot of things. I have all these tools in the shed, it's just I didn't have time and really..."

She stopped him with a finger pressed into his lips.

"You will have time. Maybe not this year. We still have a lot to do and, as a boss, you have a lot more responsibility than I do, but, William, you have to make time and have something for yourself."

"I have you," he lowered his head to catch her lips in a kiss.

"Mmm... But I meant something that is just you. Airing your head. Independent. And I will help, now that I'm here. You can't do all these jobs at once."

He sighed.

"I'm fine, Lizzy. Really. It's what I do. It's not like I'm working all around the clock, after all."

"You are the owner of your company, one. This is your nine-to-five work. Then you come home and manage the estate matters. Maybe not a full time job, but still you have to do it. Then there is the foundation and these awful budget reviews and applications and people who want to participate and events you have to organise. How do you expect to keep this up much longer, reasonably?"

"I... Come on, Lizzy. I can do it. Don't..."

"William."

He turned to her, face drawn.

"I've been doing quite fine for the last thirteen years," he uttered. "I think I can keep this up for a while longer. I will be glad if you stop expressing your lack of trust in my ability to do my job correctly."

And he was striding away from her, hands in his pockets, shoulders hunched and tense.

"William! Oh, stop, you long-legged madman! William!"

_Seriously!_

"William, what about the house then?!"

He stopped and turned to her, eyes shadowed and tense.

"What do you mean, 'what about the house'?"

She walked up to him and laid her hand on his shoulders.

"You have just added a fourth job to the list. And I know, yes, I know, you have overseen sites before, but none of them was right under your nose and none of them was a house _you_ were planning to move into. There are decisions to be made that are made by the future owner and not the site overseer. This will require attention. More involvement than any other construction you've worked on."

"I..." he inhaled deeply. "I... Why do you say things like that, Lizzy?"

She slid her hands around his waist and burrowed into him as much as she could.

"Because I want to help you, you big idiot," she mumbled into his chest. "Come on! There are things in the foundation and at the estate that need an analyst, not a manager. Give me the budget papers - I won't make a decision for you, but damn if I can't make it easier by checking for correctness! You know I see numbers better, right? It's not a weakness to delegate, William. It's reason."

"But... but you are my _wife_. I can't just... dump the tasks on you..."

She felt his heart gradually slowing down as he relaxed and his hands went up to her shoulders, hugging her closer to him.

"You can and you will. You can sign a contract with me, for unpaid, charitably donated services of checking the stupid numbers or I will start stealing the documents from your study and doing them anyway. The foundation belongs to the family, I'm family, I will work on it. I can't do human contact part, because I know nobody and mostly I'm useless in this area, but I can and will deal with the numbers. You do the people part."

"But, Lizzy..."

"But me no buts, mister. If you work yourself into an illness, who will take care of everything? I don't see Georgiana suddenly stepping up and taking over the family business. So please please do keep yourself in working condition. Delegate. Share. Divide tasks and make sure you are not the only one who manages all of them. Please?"

"Elizabeth, I can't just... just make people take things over from me!"

She sighed and shook her head.

"Home. Coffee, something sweet and the fireplace. And I will explain to you, in detail, what and how you are going to hand over. Because, Mr Darcy, now that I have you, I don't intend to stand quietly on the side and look passively as you work yourself into an early grave, clear?"

"Liz..."

"Am. I. Making. Myself. Clear?"

He huffed a weak laugh.

"Yes, dear."

"Good. Now, home. Go go go. They are quite able to follow your plans and they will all work better without the two of us distracting them from their tasks."

"Yes, dear."

 

####

 

Camden Lock was wet and not as attractive to see as it would have been in the summer, but several kids stayed around to watch another barge being lowered through the whole system. That included Teddy, who hung over the barrier in order to see the mechanism better and had to be hauled away by his collar as his group lost their patience. The rest of the morning was spent on a lazy walk through the Zoo, where each group set out in a different direction with their guardian and the objective to show up at the appointed meeting place by the six in the afternoon. Several groups tried to tag along with the one led by aunt Georgiana, counting on Mina's insight into the local shopping options and only left once she explained (trying not to laugh) to their guardians how to find specific shops on the Market and where to look for the t-shirts and other random gift kind of stuff.

"And we will only go there at the very end, once they are _gone_ " she threatened her group. "Because if we go now, you will all buy totally random stuff and have to carry it around. So. Anyone wants to see the penguins?"

 

#

 

Once all the animals available late in the autumn had been seen, a light lunch was eaten and whoever needed, made use of the facilities, they set out back towards the Camden High Street to "just look at all that plastic crap". Of course, there were stalls full of everything. T-shirts, baseball caps, wallets, purses, handbags, jewelry ("Stop that, this will give you allergies, Mariah"), hats, mobile accessories ("Oooh, lookie, a Loki cover for my iphone!"), various services ("how many tattoo parlours can you have on one street?" "way too many") and food.

The little assembly of three groups, to the total of ten girls, five boys and three grownups, moved slowly but with small stops onwards. Teddy nipped out into one of the shops and came back with something wrapped in a white plastic bag and then into another, where he bought something small enough to fit in his pocket. Rose simply _had to_ have the purple fedora hat she saw on one of the stalls and even Mina finally caved in and allowed herself to be tempted by a handbag shaped like an old audio cassette.

Once they passed by the Lock (this time not allowing Teddy to watch for too long) and turned into the Market Hall, it was hard to keep each group in check, but Mina and Rose helped their aunt by hauling their classmates along when they froze in front of more attractive displays. Pretty soon everyone's backpacks were heavier (or at least bulkier) and pockets much lighter, despite the fact that Mina warned them about Stables Market being another place for them to visit. By the time they got to the second location, most of the kids were out of money, while Mina and Rose stayed strong. As they turned into the gate with huge "Stables Market" sign over it, Mina pulled them forward, then a little left, then a little right and...

"Behold," she pointed to the shop in front of them. "The Cyberdog."

The collective moan of "Whaat?" arose from the group.

 

#

 

Mina's backpack was exactly as full as she planned it to be (two t-shirts, one glowing in the dark and one with Tom Hiddleston's profile; seven patterned hairbands, three glass bracelets and several items she carefully secreted at the bottom of the bag, hiding them from everyone's view), Rose managed to stop herself at three t-shirts (although one was fabulously creepy - Halloween pumpkins with glow-in-the-dark print) and three hairbands, but she also asked everyone to wait for her three times when she saw a particularly interesting booth. Aunt Georgiana watched them with an indulgent smile until she too heard the siren call of a clothing stall and fell in love with a bottle green wool cloak. Smaller items like sweets, a scented candle or two (or four...) and a paper fan almost didn't register after that.

Mr Evans was rather efficient when it came to keeping his boys to the chosen route (which was mostly "following Teddy, who follows Mina", but nobody complained) so pretty soon they were out of the Market and heading towards the Regent's Park Road and turning towards the Primrose Hill. As the group got staggered a bit, some stopping to have a look at the train tracks and some slowly strolling in the direction of the park, Mina and Teddy brought up the rear, making sure nobody got left behind. Thus they were the ones to witness everything from the best vantage point at the middle of the walkway.

 

####

 

"Mina Bennet, what _are_ you doing here!?"

Teddy looked up, a bit surprised, to where an elderly lady had accosted Rose and was now showering her with reproofs.

"Shit."

Well, that was shaping up to be an interesting day. His girlfriend had just cursed.

"Teddy, I need you to do something for me," Mina grabbed his hand and turned him around. "I need you to go ahead, find a grocery shop and buy Rose some chocolate. She will need it. Give me five minutes, OK?"

"But, Starlight...?"

"Teddy," she frowned at him. "Please. Now. I will deal with this. She is not... She is not a threat. It's just my grandmother."

"Your _what_?"

"My grandmother. Yes, my Mom's mother. No, it's not a good idea for her to see you. Just... even better, look for aunt Georgiana. Tell her we are here and what happened. We won't move from here, but, you know..."

He sighed and dropped a kiss on her lips.

"I will go find your aunt."

His girlfriend inhaled deeply and turned to face the commotion caused by the older lady, Rose and now three additional passers-by, who were trying to intervene. He hurried up, trying to catch up to Miss Darcy who was right now herding the other three girls and moving back to find her nieces.

_Good._

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Any more Teddy fans out there? ;)


	33. To ward off winter chill - p2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Weekend in London.  
> Some shopping, amongst other things.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was written 90% when I saw that the whole description doesn't fit my characters and had to cut about 1/2 of the text. Rewrote it in a different registry, hopefully it did work out.  
> If you find any errors, or continuity problems, let me know - I might have missed something in the rewriting.

####

 

CHAPTER 20: To ward off winter chill

(2 of ?)

 

####

 

"Hello, grandma," Rose almost fainted out of sheer relief, hearing her sister joining the fray.

"But..." Mrs Bennet looked first at one then at the other. "What are you doing...?"

"Let Rose go, grandma. We are on a school trip, under supervision and with friends. If you don't leave Rose alone, I will start screaming and any policeman that comes will be very very unhappy with you."

Rose's arm was free in zero-point-three-seconds.

"You would try to threaten your own family with police?"

There was more annoyance than actual fear in that sentence, but Rose quickly moved to stand by her twin and shrugged her backpack on again.

"I absolutely would. If it gets me the results," Mina said with just a hint of irritation. "Why shouldn't I?"

"What are the two of you... I mean, why are... Oh, your mother did this just to vex me! She simply _wanted_ to be special in some way! That's why there are _two_ of you, I'm sure of it!"

"I'm sure Mom went through a difficult pregnancy and several hours of labour just to annoy _you_ " Mina snarled and Rose looked at her twin in surprise. "I thought nobody could cause themselves to have twins just by willing it so, but hey, maybe we didn't get to that part in biology yet. I suppose we have a lot to learn still."

"Some children should learn how to keep their thoughts to themselves...!"

"And some grownups should learn to keep their mouths shut."

_Oh. Aunt Georgiana on a white horse._

In a distance, Mr Evans was keeping his group - sans Teddy - and their three classmates occupied with something while Georgiana Darcy, all her six feet and one inch, went against Frances Bennet, five feet five when in high heels _and_ a hat.

"And who would _you_ be? A teacher in their village school?"

Aunt Georgie smiled slightly.

"No, but I don't see the relevance of who I am to the topic at hand. They are here under my care, so they are leaving with me, right now. And you, whoever you are, madame, will not follow us or importune us in any other manner."

"How dare you! Do you know who I am?"

"She just said she doesn't, _grandma_ ," Rose regained her courage and stepped forward. "And she is our guardian on this trip and you should listen to her. Please leave us alone."

Mina made an unhappy sound that made Rose look away from her grandmother.

_Ah. Teddy._

"Let's go join the rest, OK?" aunt Georgiana grabbed their hands and steered them towards Mr Evans, nodding sharply at Teddy to go ahead and ignoring angry sounds coming from the older woman. "We have to get going to be back at the hostel on time for dinner."

They followed without a word, relieved to be done, but Rose saw Mina's eyes drop to the ground as they caught up with the others. After a few minutes of quiet march, she freed her hand from aunt Georgiana's hold and fell back a step, pulling Teddy to walk next to her.

"What was _that_?" he asked softly.

" _That_ was a proof that every family has their own little bit of crazy," she answered with a heavy sigh. "Just... just don't bring it up with Mina, OK? I mean... I hope you won't dump her now because of..."

He snorted.

"Lord, no. But... not that I should be pointing fingers, because aunt Gisela is my mother's sister, but how can your mother be so _nice_ with that," he gestured over his shoulder "as an example?"

Rose shrugged and smiled with relief.

"We have no idea, but we are quite happy to accept it as it is. Teddy..." she bit her lip in hesitation. "I mean, I don't want to do anything like, I dunno, manage you and Mina or whatever, or scare you or... But she is my sister. It's hard..." she closed her eyes for a moment and huffed a breath. "OK, I promised myself, no meddling, I'm not some bloody Emma or whatever. But just... Let her know it's fine? OK? Because she knows our family is a bit mad and now she will be afraid you... You know."

Teddy patted her arm.

"Yeah, I know. And you will hurt me if I hurt her, I know. Come on, let's catch up before someone thinks I can't work out which one of you is which and we end up with some silly gossip about us."

Rose nodded in absolute agreement and soon they re-joined the group. In complete silence, Teddy caught Mina's free hand in his and pulled her closer, walking with her like that until they arrived at the Tube station. The short ride back to their accommodation was spent in quiet contemplation, Mina and Rose sitting between Teddy and aunt Georgiana and trying not to pay too much attention to their other companions.

Rose could only hope that the last evening of the trip wouldn't bring any more excitement. She wanted to go to their room, pack their things and fall into her bed. She was definitely looking forward to a nice, quiet weekend at aunt Kitty's.

 

####

 

Saturday morning was taken by packing and checking and rechecking the rooms, quick breakfast and everyone being loaded into their buses. Teddy and Mina took the chance to just stand together for a moment, quietly, as the girls waited for aunt Kitty to show up and pick them up.

Rose went through the memories from the trip with some level of satisfaction. Good amount sightseeing, some shopping, Mina got to show off as the local guide, Davison got told off by more than just Steven (as he tried picking up a fight with Teddy at dinner the previous night), aunt Georgiana and Miss Yang would be going back on the same bus. All in all, a well-spent week. And the reports coming from their parents in the form of sporadic text messages told them how the construction of the new house was progressing (slowly, but steadily, despite changing weather), how Mom had spent her Friday (finally putting together her birthday present and only hitting her fingers with a hammer once), how Dad was avoiding calls from the office (not that successfully) and what Mom's workroom looked like now with all the things in place (impressively).

Spending a day and a half with aunt Kitty and uncle Ted was promising to be reasonably interesting, giving Rose a chance to finally learn something about Agatha and Natalie. She wanted to actually get to know them, as the _other_ pair of twins in the family and all the family meetings before were either much too crowded or complete madhouse, or both.

_I'm curious if this is a genetic thing or just a coincidence._

Finally the buses were full, aunt Kitty has arrived and formally took them over from aunt Georgiana, Mina had kissed Teddy for something like the fifteenth time since breakfast and they were getting into aunt Kitty's sedan, their varied luggage piled in the backseat between them.

"So, ladies," their aunt smiled back. "How was the trip? And may I get some low-down on that cute boy that seemed unable to let Mina go? It is the same one that had crawled under the chairs, looking for the ring, right?"

Rose smiled widely as her sister blushed fiery red.

It was good to see them say goodbye like that. It meant Teddy managed to convince her sister he wasn't going to run away at the first sign of craziness in their family. Or a second one.

 

#

 

Agatha and Natalie were delighted - properly delighted! - to have the older twins just to themselves for a promised weekend together. Rose and Mina were bodily dragged to the younger girls' room and sat on the cushions and introduced to every object, from the cute identical beds to the row of dolls on Agatha's side and a large plush... motorbike...? on Natalie's bed.

Finally, the younger two sat in front of them and fell silent.

Rose looked at her sister and then at their cousins.

Natalie looked at Agatha. Agatha shrugged. Natalie nodded.

Rose felt a pang of jealousy at that casual display of perfect twin communication.

"Do the people at your school think you are freaky?" Natalie asked without preamble, making Rose's thought process screech to a halt.

"What?" she asked inelegantly.

"People in our class think twins are weird."

"And we are the only twins in our school."

"Small school," Rose heard her sister mutter.

"Well... They _do_ think we are a bit weird," she admitted. "But that is not only because we are twins."

"Because your mom and dad didn't speak to each other for like ages and ages, we know," Agatha nodded sagely. "And because you never knew about each other."

"Well, and there is one more thing," Rose pointed out. "My birthday is a day before hers."

The smaller girls made the same perfect "Ouuu" sound of bewilderment.

"But... How..."

"Complicated," Mina cut off that line on enquiry. "The doctors wrote it like this, so my official birthday is a day after Rose, even though she is only fifteen minutes older."

"I am half an hour older then her," Natalie poked Agatha in the shoulder. "But they didn't put us in different days. That would be weird."

"Yeah, we know," Rose laughed softly as Natalie blushed. "Not many people have birthday like we do, but that way we get to bake the biscuits twice and our classmates are happy because they get twice the amount of sweets."

Natalie frowned and seemed to be calculating something.

"You two are _not_ to try to change your birthday," aunt Kitty stood in the doorway, smiling. "Now, wash your hands in a moment, there is a small lunch getting ready in the oven and then we will be taking a walk to the Imperial, to show you the place where your mother - that is aunt Lizzy, yes - will be having her conference. Interested?"

Rose nodded immediately and they scrambled to their feet.

Somewhere downstairs a bell rang.

"Hm," aunt Kitty pulled out her mobile. "No calls, no texts... wonder who..."

A shrill "Do you know what happened yesterday!?" filled the hall as soon as the door was opened.

Aunt Kitty said something that was most definitely not supposed to be heard by anyone under twenty-one.

 

####

 

"Mommy..."

Elizabeth sat up straight. Mina _never_ sounded like that unless she was ill.

"Kitten, what is wrong?"

The sigh that followed was positively wretched.

"I know we were not supposed to call you or stuff, but Mom, would you please come and get us? It is a mess and..." there was a sound in the background "...and aunt Kitty is not feeling very well and then..."

"Kitten, I'm putting you on the loudspeaker, so your Dad can listen in and we can start getting ready. Talk to me, what happened?"

"It was..." Mina sighed. "Grandma, well, she saw us yesterday, when we were leaving Camden Town and she mistook Rose for me and started telling her off and then _I_ told grandma she should let Rose go and then aunt Georgiana also scolded grandma and we got back to the hostel and it was fine and... And today we got to aunt Kitty's and we were just going to have some lunch and go for a walk and grandma just came by without warning and started complaining about you and about us and about all of us being against her and... and I don't really know, and then uncle Ted kind of spilt that we were there, all totally by accident, and grandma started shouting and Agatha and Natalie started crying. And then aunt Kitty told grandma she is not welcome in their house and that she would not allow grandma to see us or Aggie and Nat if grandma kept screaming like that and grandma said something about aunt Kitty always wanting to be like you with a crazy husband and weird hobbies and having twins. And aunt Kitty went all squeaky and shouted that if grandma was going to be like that she can kiss seeing her newest grandchild goodbye. And then everything went very quiet and uncle Ted walked grandma out of the door and took aunt Kitty to their room and they were talking and she was crying and then he came out, took the lasagna out of the oven, told us to eat and said he was sorry but we would have to take care of ourselves and he trusted us to be reasonable girls and has been sitting with her ever since. And Nat and Aggie are getting nervous but like, Mom, I think that aunt Kitty is like, pregnant, and..."

Elizabeth looked up at William, who was standing next to her with an overnight bag.

"Kitten, give me ten minutes to gather my things and we're leaving. And yes, I think Kitty is pregnant, good guess, darling. Can you just sit there with Nat and Aggie and keep them occupied? We will be there in... well, navigation says three hours. Will you be fine until then?"

Mina took an audible breath.

"Yeah. We will be fine. I suppose."

"Very well. We're leaving. You can see our location on your maps app, remember."

"Yes, I know. Thank you, Mom."

"No worries, kitten. Just sit tight and take care of Nat and Aggie. You can show them some cartoons on your tablet, hm?"

"Sure. OK, we will. See you, Mom, Dad."

"See you soon, ducky," William closed the connection and added the phone to her handbag. "Ready? I am assuming we are staying overnight - I definitely would rather _not_ have to drive back home today anyway."

Elizabeth pushed an emergency change of clothes into her own small bag and smiled wanly. "Ready. I just hope nobody from my family has another idiotic idea this weekend. And yes, I think we should stay until tomorrow..."

William gathered her closer and pressed a kiss to her hair.

"Don't worry. We will be there in no time. In the meanwhile, you can find us a hotel close to Kitty's. I'd rather _not_ use anyone from the family as an emergency place to crash."

"Neither would I... But first, I will send a text to Georgiana and tell her nobody is going to be home. She may want to make use of this rare occasion."

"Elizabeth!"

"She _is_ a grownup, after all," she rolled his eyes as he scowled.

"I don't even want to hear that," he groaned. "Take my phone and pick something through the booking app, just make sure it's in reasonable distance from Kitty's house."

They locked up the house - which felt a bit weird - and went around to inform Brian they would be leaving. William pulled both their bags on his shoulder and twirled a fat key fob in his fingers.

"Come on, Lizzy, let's get this monster running."

"What are you...? William!"

Her husband smirked from where he was leaning on the side of a sleek, dangerously-looking car.

"I asked for it to be driven to the house yesterday evening. Wanted to take you for a spin later tonight, but now we will make a better use of it. Hop in, Mrs Darcy, let's go fetch our kids in style."

 

#

 

In two hours and change the car was murmuring quietly through the suburbs of London and Elizabeth was very carefully trying not to think about the number of speed limits they had broken on their way there. The Jag was indeed sleek, silent and sexy and so terrifyingly powerful she could barely sit in it as a passenger. She was definitely _not_ going to be driving that one.

_A Skoda is good enough for me, thank you very much._

They pulled up in front of Kitty's house and sat for a moment in silence. There was no trace of Elizabeth's mother, but still she had to take a few deeper breaths just to get out of the car.

Ted had apparently been waiting for them, as the door opened immediately and they were let inside quickly (all locks secured behind them). He seemed a bit shaken, but in seconds four pairs of stomping feet hammered at the floor and girls appeared at the top of the stairs.

"Mom, Dad," Rose squeezed around Ted and hugged them at the same time, closely followed by Mina. "It was..."

"Ugly," Mina finished. "I don't want to see grandma ever again."

"Never ever," Rose confirmed. "She doesn't deserve to see..."

"...any of us."

Elizabeth glanced at William with an uncertain face.

"Come on in, sit down. I will make you a cuppa," Ted offered tiredly. "Kit, darling, your sister is here."

"Which one? Did mom send the stupidest one to torment me...? Oh, good, it's Lizzy..."

"I hope you are happy it's me and not Lydia," Elizabeth quipped weakly and untangled herself from her daughters' embrace. "Come here, Kit. Oh, I'm so sorry..." she knelt by where Kitty was reclining on several cushions.

"Not your fault, Lizzy. If only I wasn't such a useless little idiot and didn't give her the opening...!"

"I've let her in," admitted Ted. "But I wasn't expecting _that_. I mean, she does drop by from time to time, so it's nothing unexpected in general, but that was like an explosion. And then she started shouting at Kitty and..."

"And then _I_ exploded," Kitty provided ruefully from her place on the sofa. "I told her if she keeps behaving like that, I will not let her see her youngest grandchild and Ted..."

"I just finally threw her out," their brother-in-law summarised. "Even I have my limits."

"OK, so, you two, make sure you get plenty of sleep. I'm taking my little princesses off your hands and we will..." she glanced at William. "We will probably have to visit our parents tomorrow. Although there are many much more interesting things to do on a Sunday than that."

Kitty patted her shoulder awkwardly from her spot.

"Go on then, Liz. Let me know what size of a crater you leave once you are done with them. Where are you staying?"

Elizabeth just rolled her eyes.

"William had me book a hotel for us, so we'll be just a few streets over. Seemed like the safest solution. This way we are free to come and go and we're not dropping in on anyone without warning."

"But, you could stay with us...!" Kitty protested weakly.

"No way," Elizabeth said firmly, standing up. "You two need some quiet time - as quiet as your kids will let you. You don't need any guests hanging around here. Girls, pick up your things, say goodbye to your cousins and let's get in the car. We can drop our things at the hotel and then go for a little walk, just the four of us, hmmm?"

 

#

 

The hotel was very nice - Elizabeth carefully didn't pay attention to the price and the girls seemed a bit too shaken to pay attention to _anything_ , so they missed the level of discreetly covered luxury until they got to their suite and Mina collapsed on the bed in "their" room.

"Thith ith thoft" she remarked with her face in the duvet. "I wanna thtay like thith."

"Come on, lazybones. I'm giving you fifteen minutes and then we are going," Elizabeth poked her in the ankle. "We have to show Rose and Dad something of the city, hm? I don't think we will have another chance to do that this year. I think we would all prefer to spend the rest of November _and_ December quietly at home, right?"

Mina heaved a sigh.

"OK, fine. But we go to Southbank Market."

"I was thinking about Leicester Square, actually, it is a bit closer."

Her younger daughter glared at her from under her fringe.

"Southbank. I want roasted chestnuts."

"Leicester. Someone posted that there is a fudge stall. I want _fudge_."

A moan.

"OK, Leicester. But we will buy chestnuts anyway and roast them at home!"

"Fine," she pushed up from the bed. "Then we can come back here for supper and decide what we do about tomorrow."

A sigh.

"Do we really have to go to grandma's? I mean... I don't wanna."

"I have to talk to them and we should go all together, I think. I hope that with you two being there - and with William - they will finally take us seriously and start treating us like actual independent human beings. I don't think they actually noticed you two had turned fourteen this year."

"But Adele is going to have a huge birthday party in February, right?" Mina mumbled. "Because Adele can do no evil, Adele is perfect granddaughter, Adele always agrees with grandma..."

"Adele knows where the candy is coming from," Rose remarked wryly from the bathroom door. "She knows aunt Lydia isn't working and she knows grandma is the one that gives them money for everything. Come on, Mina, don't be jealous of _Adele_ of all people."

"I'm not, like, _jealous_ of her. It's... I mean..." Elizabeth watched as Mina tried to put her feelings into thoughts. "It's just so bloody unfair! Aunt Lydia doesn't do _anything_ , she just sits around the house, paints her nails and mooches off grandma and grandpa _and_ she made Adele stop playing with me all that time ago. And Adele is never given any chores, she never even carries plates to the kitchen!"

"She broke a few," Elizabeth pointed out. "Grandma was not happy with her."

"Yeah, and she now doesn't have to do any cleaning _because_ she broke them," Mina counterpointed. "She can sit in the corner and watch cartoons..."

"Let's not be purposefully dumb like Adele, please," Rose moaned. "That would be depressing."

"Now, we leave that topic for later," Elizabeth strolled to the door. "You have ten minutes and we are leaving. Bundle up."

 

####

 

The Christmas market was actually quite fun, Rose decided. This particular one wasn't bigger than what would soon be set up in Lambton _but_ there were several of them, all over London. Including a much bigger one in Hyde Park, apparently.

Stuffed with fudge, roasted almonds and with their pockets full of jelly bears, Dad's shoulder bag somewhat heavy with random objects he found on various stalls and books, and Mom finally relaxed, they headed over to the hotel, where Mina promptly fell asleep just as she was, discarding only her shoes and her coat.

Rose ate her supper staring at her plate blearily and let herself be directed to the bathroom, supervised when she brushed her teeth and then pushed towards the bed. Dad managed to get Mina into a vertical (ish) position and convinced her to brush her teeth in turn and then Mom got her undressed and managed to get her under the covers before Mina again fell asleep on top of her bedspread.

Rose tried to read, at least for few minutes, but she fell asleep with her nose in her book.

 

####

 

"We will not be eating anything, we will not be taking tea, we go in, we say our thing, we leave," Elizabeth breathed deeply and looked at the others. "Clear?"

Her daughters nodded silently.

"Let me talk, unless I lose my patience and start throwing things at my dear parents. Then you can pick me up and carry me out, Will. Not earlier."

"Fine. Now, do we go in? I'd rather get this over with."

"I'd rather go to Hyde Park and see the market there," Mina mumbled.

"We can go later. For the time being, we are going to talk to your grandparents. This is going to be fun."

William opened the door and stepped out of the car.

"Fun," she heard him murmur. "We have totally different definitions of fun, love, I'm afraid. Ah, Liz?"

She inhaled deeply and smiled at him, feeling herself fraying at the edges. He leaned back to peer inside the car.

"Do you want us to go all in, or are we keeping _this_ a secret?" he waggled his fingers.

She shuddered.

"Well, if we go in openly, we risk getting additionally scolded for not telling them before. I'd rather _not_ add that to the whole argument."

William grimaced.

"When you put it that way..." he quickly twisted off his band and handed it to her. "Put them away safely and let's go face the dragons."

She slipped both rings into her sewing kit and placed them securely in her handbag.

"I feel weird without it," she confessed as she reached for the door handle.

"Well, the quicker we get this over with, the sooner you can put it back on. Let's just do it."

"Come on, girls. Let's talk to your grandparents and then we can go do some shopping and be back home for dinner."

Mina only grimaced as she got out of the Jag, but Rose was pale and silent. They trailed behind William without word as Lizzy led the way.

 

#

 

Father was sitting in the corner of the living room, brooding over a cup of coffee and mother was flying around, making distressed noises.

"Good morning," she smiled sunnily at everyone, including Adele. "Mom, Dad, we need to talk to you for a moment. Would it be possible to have some of your attention today?"

"This is..." her mother scowled at William and then at the girls hiding behind him. "Of course it's about _them_. I knew it. The moment that ungrateful, disgusting man threw me out of their house..."

"Is she talking about uncle Ted?" one of her daughters whispered theatrically.

"I suppose so, unless someone else threw her out of their house yesterday, too."

"Obviously, when you first accost one of them on the street and then do _that_ to Kitty in her own home, what do you expect? Do you want me to congratulate you? Wish you continued career in the field of tormenting your pregnant daughters?"

"Elizabeth?" her father finally raised his eyes at them.

"Kitty, Dad. You remember her? Slightly taller than me, dark blonde? Your fourth child?"

Thomas Bennet shrugged imperceptibly and she heard William inhale as if to start speaking.

A strategically trod-on toe silenced even big men like William.

"Now, I think we have some serious things to discuss, if you two are quite focused...?"

"Adele, take your cousins and go," her mother replied quickly. "I will call you when the lunch is ready."

"Actually, Rose and Mina should stay right here," Elizabeth smiled thinly. "This is mostly about them, mother. I don't wish to discuss them without their presence."

"They stay, I stay," Adele crossed her arms and planted her feet firmly. "I wanna hear."

"There is nothing for you to hear here, Adele," Elizabeth's mother was obviously trying to limit the number of 'little ears' present at the discussion.

"I have as much right to be here as they do! It is _my_ house, not theirs!"

"Actually, this is _grandma's_ house," Rose remarked sweetly.

Elizabeth didn't point out that this rhetoric left Rose vulnerable to an order from her grandmother, but fortunately said granbmother didn't notice that point either. Adele flounced out of the room, slamming the door shut. They all looked at each other.

"Will you sit then?" father made an abortive gesture to the chairs at the table. "What is this all about?"

Elizabeth found herself being sat on a chair pulled out by William, who took the place next to her. Mina and Rose settled for the couch just next to them.

"Mother had met Rose in Camden Town on Friday and started shouting at her, thinking it was Mina. Then she shouted some more at Mina herself, including some statements about me that I feel we need to discuss. Also, over the last weeks, she made various remarks to me, regarding myself, that should be clarified, too. So, now, the clarification," she leaned forward, meeting her parents' gazes across the table. "Let me be rightly understood. I do not want to ever again hear any of you spewing your crazy talk at my daughters, is it clear? Whatever in the world possessed you, mother, to tell my daughters that I have had them in order to spite you? Ignoring the purely biological side of the equation, because that makes no bloody sense, how could you even say things like this? Why would anyone have a kid just to annoy someone else?"

Her mother squirmed.

Honest to God squirmed.

And her father looked away.

"Oh..." Elizabeth suddenly found herself without air. "You... you two did it. You two actually did that. You had... OK, I suppose Jane was born just for herself - and don't think I can't count to nine and subtract dates - but... How many of us...?"

She couldn't think. She couldn't form her sentences properly.

An arm sneaked from behind her and pulled her closer to a safe, warm body.

"Assuming that everyone else sees the world in the same way you do is a sign of a very limited understanding," William's voice broke the dead silence that fell when she paused. "But let me inform you, nobody will be speaking in this manner to my children if I have anything to say about it. And I will be grateful, for the future, if you refrain from speaking in this manner to Elizabeth, too."

"It was because of your grandmother," father said calmly, pouring himself more tea. "Your _mother_ wanted to prove that she can, in fact, have a son. That didn't work as expected, obviously."

Elizabeth felt a tiny bit faint, but William's warm hand at her waist steadied her.

"You... You mean, I was... No. Back to the topic. Whatever your crazy experiences are, they are not mine. I don't even know what to say to you anymore, but whatever else happens, you two have to reconsider your approach. Either you do that - and I mean, seriously - or I won't allow you any contact with Rose and Mina. You have until Christmas to decide which way it's going to be. It's a month - and change - so you have a lot of time to think. Either you want to treat me like a grownup and my daughters as people with their own rights, autonomy and feelings, or you are not welcome to contact us. In any way. If you wish to continue the relationship, come to Pemberley on the 23rd, evening, and we will talk. If you decide you can't keep to the rules I set... Then don't come. We won't bother you in any way from that day onwards."

"But, _Elizabeth_!"

"You have a month, mother. Don't call me in that time. Don't bother my sisters. Don't... just don't."

"But how else am I supposed to know what you are doing?! Everyone is asking about you and I have to know what to tell them!"

Elizabeth stood up slowly and straightened the hem of her jacket.

"That is purely your business, mom, not mine. You are the one that started this little competition between mothers of the neighbourhood, you have to live with it. I will not be guilted into supporting your bragging obsession."

She looked at her father long and hard.

"I will be visiting London occasionally," she informed the air in front of her. "There is a conference which I wish to attend and then I will most probably be in town more or less on weekly basis."

Her father's eyebrows went up and he looked at her inquisitively, but she ignored him and turned to her daughters.

"Come on, ladies. Jackets on, we are going to Hyde Park to see the market there."

"Can we then walk to the Imperial and have a look at it?" Mina asked innocently.

"Oh?" sudden her father's focus was almost painful in its intensity. "And why would you want to go _there_?"

"Mina is considering applying to the Imperial," William provided seriously. "She wanted to see what it looked like, as long as we already are in London."

"B-but isn't she a little too young?"

_Oh-ho, the doting grandma mode._

"I think it is very good that she has plans," William remarked. "Rose has picked her dream school a year ago."

"Doing what, an MBA?"

_And the sarcastic grandfather. Lord help me._

"No, landscape architecture," her older daughter answered haughtily. "In Amsterdam."

 

#

 

After Rose's little bomb the conversation died quickly and they left before Lydia could appear. They did see her on the street as they waited on the red light and Elizabeth sighed at the sight of her youngest sister. But there was nothing to be said there, not now and maybe not ever.

"Mom? Is aunt Lydia invited for Christmas, too?"

Mina sounded unsure.

Elizabeth sighed.

"She would be, if I believed her to be able to behave properly. Your grandparents can be hoped to see the error of their ways, but I'm afraid I can't expect the same from Lydia."

"B-but does this mean she and Adele will be alone for Christmas?" Rose asked suddenly. "Because if you invited grandma and grandpa... and not her..."

She exchanged a quick glance with William, who sighed, nodded and turned the car around, catching up with Lydia in half a minute.

For a few breaths, Elizabeth watched Lydia, who was now standing in front of their parents' gate and smoking. Lizzy got out of the car and sent a short prayer for patience to whichever helpful powers would be listening.

"Are you going to tell me off for smoking, sis?" Lydia took a long pull of her cigarette. "I'm not doing it inside."

"No, Lyddie," Elizabeth looked at the house, trying to guess how many people were watching them right now. "I wanted to invite you for Christmas. To Pemberley."

"We will be spending Christmas with our parents, thank you very much. Like we always do. Jane and her brats, Mary and her..." she shrugged. "And Kitty with her little clones."

"Actually, they are all invited to us," Elizabeth corrected mildly. "Including our parents. And so are you. If you wish."

Lydia smoked in silence for a moment.

"Why would you want us there?" she asked finally. "You never wanted me anywhere around your precious Miss Perfect, after all."

Elizabeth felt a weave of faintness washing over her, but she leaned discreetly on the fencepost and smiled wanly.

"Lyddie, you were the one who told Adele not to play with Mina. I never did anything to stop Mina from having contact with either of you."

"Well, I think you did. Every time you were visiting, whenever I tried to play with both of them, you were the one carrying Mina away. You taught her to be afraid of me!"

Lizzy calmly counted to ten.

"Lyddie, you are loud."

Her sister frowned at that simple statement.

"Mina has been brought up in a very, very quiet home. Pemberley was quiet. Even the family wing of the student housing where I lived with Mary was relatively quiet. Mary and me are not very loud either. And then she only lived with me... Lyddie, in comparison to what she heard normally at home, you were always shouting at her. She wasn't afraid because I told her anything about you, but because you were making too much noise for her."

Lydia threw the cigarette on the ground and stomped on it.

"What about this summer? She came back from that supposedly beneficial camp Jane wanted her to go to - she never suggested _Adele_ could go to one, wonder why - and she started behaving as if we were the weirdest thing she had ever seen!"

"Because you were, actually," Elizabeth rubbed her nose. "Because it was not Mina, but Rose. You know, my _other_ daughter."

Lydia opened her mouth, but no sound came out.

"Did our parents tell you why I moved to Derbyshire so suddenly?"

"N-no. I kind of guessed you got back together with your..." she nodded towards the car.

"Did they even tell you that Mina was sick? Did they tell you I told Mom to let you rent the flat I was using? That Rose and Mina switched places during vacation?"

" _What?_ Mother never mentioned _that_."

Elizabeth sighed.

"Well, they did. And, long story short, we've moved up North because of it. And now we live in a house where we can invite everyone. So, Lyddie, on the 23rd - that is Saturday - get in the car, pack enough clothes for the two of you for a week and come. If you decide you don't like it, well, it's not a prison, nobody will stop you from leaving the next day. But Adele may actually benefit from spending her holidays in a new place. Not that many new people - mainly Rose - but the grounds are much more fun than the backyard here. So..." she pushed herself off the fence. "Up to you, Lyds. Five weeks to consider your options. Make use of them."

 

#

 

"What did Lydia say?" William's breath warmed her ear.

"She just shrugged and mumbled 'whatever'. That is like a ringing endorsement from her, I suppose," she sank into her seat and looked up at him ruefully. "Will you be very angry if they all decide they want to come?"

"Well, I don't expect that Christmas to be very relaxing then, but we will make do. We can hope she will behave, for Adele's sake."

Only later, when the girls were running free through Hyde Park towards the Winter Wonderland, she felt chagrin at the way they had been speaking.

"We shouldn't be discussing family in front of them in that manner," she sighed. "They will hear way too much..."

"Why not?" William's hand flexed around hers. "I mean, they already have their own opinions about a lot of stuff that pertains to our families - aunt Catherine, Anne, your parents... I suppose Mina may have a lot to say about Adele and Lydia, too, that she keeps quiet."

"But they shouldn't inherit out prejudice about people..." she fretted. "They should be able to form their own opinions."

"What about when giving them a chance to form these opinions would be dangerous to them? Like with Anne? Or with Lydia, actually, I suppose. Not to cast aspersions on your sister, but she isn't the most, well, upright member of society."

"No offence taken here," she leaned on his shoulder. "Well... yes. That makes sense. Because if we want to treat them as grownups, we can't just tell them to cease contact with this or that person - it would be on par with Lydia telling Adele to stop playing with Mina all that time ago."

"But I suppose we should mind our language."

"Yeah, I suppose so, too."

"Mom! Look!" Rose careened into her side, pointing to a stand just on the edge. "Fudge!"

Both she and Mina giggled like madwomen at Elizabeth's pained groan.

"Oooh, torrone!" Mina veered to the left. "Mom, may we have some? Just a little bit?"

William was laughing by the time they paid for two not-that-little slabs of almond and pistachio nougat, but the girls were off to see the gingerbread stall next and they followed in more restrained fashion.

"Ah, wooden toys," William peered over the heads of everyone at that counter. "Come on, girls, that's not your kind of crowd... I think?"

"Well, I wouldn't say no to that one," Mina picked up a square frame with a geometry puzzle. "And ooh, they have a marble run...!"

"Isn't a marble run a bit childish even for you, Bennet?"

There were things Elizabeth had seen in cartoons, but never before in real life. The way Mina's face lost all its colour was an example.

She and Rose turned in the direction of whoever it was - a girl slightly taller than them with what seemed to be a permanent smirk etched on her face.

Smirk turned out not to be that permanent when she blinked, squeezed her eyes shut, rubbed them and then squinted at Elizabeth's daughters.

"Effing hell, Bennet, why are there two of you? One is not enough to make our life suck?"

Rose rolled her eyes and Mina scowled.

"Go away, Christine," she said simply. "I don't want to talk to you."

Elizabeth tried pushing through a group of smaller children, but they seemed not to understand her need to move forward and created a nearly solid wall around her, letting her only witness what went down by the counter.

"Oh, well. As far as I can see, we are in a public place and I can talk to whoever I want, you little freak. No idea where you got the other one from, but I'm guessing she is another weirdo... Bennet has only a mother, so I suppose you only have a father?" she threw in Rose's direction. "Wonder where you found her, in a shelter for misunderstood geeks? She is a nerd if I've ever seen one. No girl has any business being that good at the computer stuff... and saying your mother works with computers only proves you are _weird_."

"Piss off," Rose said calmly and while Elizabeth couldn't condone the usage of that slightly vulgar term, she heartily supported the message. "Leave Mina alone, you bully."

"Oooh, it talks! I though it may have been a mannequin, made to look like you, Bennet. The only way you could get a friend is to have your mother program one for you, after all," Christine-whatever-her-name was laughing now, showing off her pearly white teeth.

"Yeah, it talks," Rose's voice went through a sudden transformation, her accent deepening and broadening. "And it will give your ass a solid whipping if you come any closer to Mina. Hear me? You little town twit? I've been hauling hay bales from the loft for ages and riding horses long enough to give me some nice muscles. Although I do not, by preference, hit people, leaving that particular exercise to Mina, I will happily kick your butt if you don't turn around and leave is alone this very minute."

That short tirade seemed to be something of a surprise to the taller girl, who looked around as if searching for witnesses to that unexpected exchange.

"Are you having me on?" she asked incredulously. "Bennet would get suspended at school the moment I told them that I met her here and that she threatened to beat me up - because you do look remarkably similar, so I could tell them it was _her_."

William had less scruples and parted the sea of under-tens with his sheer mass, standing behind Rose and Mina, hands on their shoulders, gathering them in protectively.

"I think you should leave them alone, young lady," he suggested affably. "And you can report to your school whatever you want, Mina isn't a student there anymore."

"Sure she is. They check for her presence every day," Christine responded cheekily. "And you don't scare me, mister. You can't lay a finger on me."

"But I definitely can tell the security you've been following us. Mina, Rose? Do you want anything from this stall?"

They both shook their heads mutely, but Elizabeth noted a glance they _both_ sent in the direction of the complex, very nicely done marble labyrinth.

"But I will tell at school," Christine apparently didn't know when to shut up. "And they will send it to the department of education and Mina will get suspended and..." she stepped back when Rose raised her hand to rub her eyes. "MOMMA! She wanted to hit me!!!"

A shrewed-eyed blonde turned at the next stall and broke into a jogging run, crossing the three metres between them with more huffing than was necessary.

"What was that, my angel? Someone was threatening my Christine?"

Rose snorted.

"Christine," William's voice was deep and kind of growly. "Was pestering my daughters and threatening them with going to school authorities for some imagined transgressions. Please, madame, do control your child and make sure she isn't troubling other kids."

"What are you saying about my sweet Christine?" the woman gasped. "She has never attacked anyone! Why would you lie like this!?"

"I think half of the people around here had heard her insulting Mina and making fun of Rose just minutes ago. I understand that the jewellery stand had attracted your attention and you stopped checking what your daughter was doing, and I don't expect you to admit she had done anything wrong. I only expect you to remove her and keep her far enough from my family for us to be able to finalise our shopping."

"You... how dare you!?"

William dared. With a few more clipped sentences, he had quietly threatened Christine's mother with a lawyer, should she continue to importune them and got rid of both her and her daughter, all the while with Mina and Rose glued to his sides.

"Now..." he turned to the stand, glancing over their daughters' heads and making eye contact with her. "I personally don't think there is such a thing as an age limit on a good marble run. Which one were you two looking at?"

 

#

 

Stuffed with a good if heavy lunch, two large boxes of marble run blocks between them, girls were drowsing in the backseat as the Jag sped north, towards home. Elizabeth leaned back in her seat and watched the road. The tension in her shoulders was fading slowly, diminishing with every mile of distance between her and London.


	34. To ward off winter chill - p3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> November, December, singing, not-dating...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So... because this chapter suddenly stopped resisting and allowed itself to be finished, here is - for all the good children - the next part.  
> Warnings: fluff, the tooth-rotting kind. Also, a bit of angst.

The rest of November passed in relative peace - the amount of schoolwork picked up while the housework was slowly winding down as the collected autumn harvest was steadily transmuted into jellies, juices and marmalade and the normality slowly encroached.

Even the first hearing in Aunt Catherine's case didn't affect them in a significant manner. They went, they testified, the girls' testimony was read, the witnesses told their story. The judge looked suitably disturbed. The lawyers of both sides exchanged angry glances and superior looks.

Aunt Catherine and Anne looked as if they didn't understand a word of English.

On the evening before the final trial Elizabeth cooked a full dinner for all of them, including Mrs Reynolds and senior estate staff, because she just couldn't stay still.

The onion soup, lasagna, tossed salad and vanilla pudding with raspberry sauce were well-received and had been praised highly by all, and yet, and yet, she simply couldn't find a peaceful spot for herself. Finally, William gave up and herded her out of the house, leaving the diners to clean up.

Fortunately a quick brisk walk in the evening air was just what she had required and she managed to fall asleep as soon as her head touched the pillow.

The court session itself was terribly underwhelming, with aunt Catherine staying silent instead of blathering about familial duty (surprising but not disappointing) and Anne staring vacantly into space. Aunt Catherine was given a suspended sentence in the view of her advanced age (the lady judge read out the specific number out loud, calling Mrs De Bourgh "a senior citizen", which was the first thing that sparked any reaction) and was ordered not to approach properties, family members or businesses belonging or in any manner linked to William and/or Elizabeth.

Anne's case was treated separately as she was pronounced as "obviously disturbed" and "under the negative influence" of her mother (who finally protested at that) and so the judge's pronouncement was to consign her to an institution that would first deal with her addiction and from there, a psychiatric assessment would be made as to her future.

 _That_ made aunt Catherine react. Wails about unfairness of it all, everyone being against her, even her own brother, blood of her blood, and how was she supposed to support herself without her daughter?!

The judge looked at her over her glasses and kindly asked whether Anne had been in fact employed at some job that would have helped them to support themselves and whether a social assistance would be needed by Mrs De Bourgh.

Sudden silence from the side of both women ended the proceedings and William happily collected the document that declared their estate and company a De Bourgh free zone.

 

#

 

They sat in the quiet car for a moment, looking at the light rain.

"That was quick," Elizabeth remarked softly. "I mean, all these court shows make it look so much more complicated..."

"The important this was, they were caught in the act," William pointed out. "Another vital point - the children were involved. Girls are not under 13, which would have been even worse, but still, they are _kids_. So they treated it pretty seriously. Also, I think aunt Catherine managed to infuriate her cousin Moira enough to make other judges move that much quicker. But you know, Lizzy, one old proverb should be applied in this case," he started the car and pulled away from the parking space. "Don't look the gift horse in the mouth."

"I am just happy this is done," she sighed. "Let's go home and forget about them."

 

####

 

The Christmas market was impressive, even in comparison to the ones they had just recently seen in London. Whole old market square - right in front of the sixth police station - was taken over by little booths, offering everything from hand-painted glass ornaments to mulled wine. Mina and Rose exchanged glances as their parents started to giggle over their shared cup of chocolate and marched decidedly towards the stage, where one of the organisers' tents was set up and receiving submissions for the carol singing competition.

"So, a duet?" the plump lady there asked brightly.

"No, she's singing" Rose pushed Mina forward. "I'm just the moral support."

"Are you sure? Twin acts are always popular" she winked at them.

"No, Mina is the one who sings" Rose repeated, a bit more slowly.

"Well, but wouldn't your parents be happy to see twins working together like this?"

_OK, she's honestly fluttering her eyelashes at us._

"No, our parents think we are actual separate human beings" Mina said patiently, her voice carrying over the din. "And they do not expect us to do things we do not like just to make someone happy."

"Well, if you say so..." the woman pursed her lips, but finally handed one form to Mina. "Fill this in and bring it back. Make sure one of your parents signs it, too."

Mina glanced at Rose and they both shook their heads minutely.

_People._

They made a perfectly synchronised turn away from the scene, but Mina stopped in her tracks after two steps. Rose looked first at her, then up the alley.

_Ah, of course._

Teddy was coming towards them, whole mass of people carrying him easily in the direction of the stage.

"Starlight," he greeted her breathlessly. "Rose," he nodded towards the older sister. "How are you two doing?"

"Fine. We were just collecting the form" Mina waved the piece of paper. "You?

"Bringing mine back already" he pulled out his copy. "We've picked the carol and want to submit this quickly, before anyone else takes this one. Hm?" he raised an eyebrow at Mina.

"I've picked one already, too. Mom helped me a bit, and I've been practising it every day now" she pushed up her scarf.

"Clever. I was considering three titles but we finally decided on one today morning."

Mina reached to grasp his shoulder.

"Make it a proper challenge, _Theodore_. I hope you chose something appropriate, for _my_ sake, so when I beat you soundly, they won't say that I won just because you weren't brave enough for a more grownup attempt."

"I'll give you a challenge, Starlight" he turned slightly red with combination of chill and excitement. "Now, do you suppose, once we deal with the paperwork, you'd be willing to have a look at the booths with me?"

Rose rolled her eyes. Of course her sister _would_ be willing. There may be things that her sister would deny Teddy - at least Rose definitely hoped so - but taking a walk with him through a Christmas market was not one. She knew Teddy's 'Starlight' was not a calculating witch like a stereotypical captain's girlfriend from a movie, so her reasons for said walk wouldn't include showing Teddy off to people from school (which would have been pathetic but also something that other girls did, a lot) or making some other boy jealous. It would be just because these two honestly, authentically enjoyed each other's company and because the distance from Lambton to Pemberley meant Mina didn't have many chances to meet Teddy outside of school since the London trip, as the weather had turned to chilly and there were no good conditions to even chat after their lessons as they were all expected to be home as early as possible.

Still, despite all the weirdness of the previous three months - or two, or a month and a half, depending what you counted as the start of their relationship - and the restrictions put on them by their parents, Mina and Teddy seemed to be sickeningly perfectly happy. She went to all the rugby games (one lost, two won) and he waited for her in front of the school or in the entrance hall on the rare days when his lessons ended earlier than theirs. She chose to ask him for help when she felt she was falling behind in some subjects instead of going to their mother. He chose to spend his lunch periods with the two of them, instead of people from his own year. Sometimes, on certain days, like the day of a game or a particularly hard test, Teddy would even join them for a few minutes during shorter breaks, sitting next to Mina on the bench and then rejoining his teammates or whoever he had the next class with, but it was rare. All in all, it was quite fine by Rose, because that meant her sister was not changing into a clinging vine like some girls from upper classes, and Teddy wasn't going weirdly jealous and possessive, like some older boys were about their girls.

Rose had to admit they looked rather cute together. Mina was much slimmer than her - they still displayed a significant difference in built - and Teddy was, well, _ripped_. Rugby and Army Cadets activities gave him a physique girls at school were mooning over. Rose felt a certain level of satisfaction, and maybe possessiveness, when listening to some of these girls discuss the tactics of "taking Teddy away from that usurper". As if they stood a chance! He was Mina's and if anyone wanted to dispute that, well, first they'd have to challenge Mina. There were some that had actually been considering it - as if Teddy was a medieval princess, meekly handed over to whoever bashed in the most heads during the tourney.

They apparently never saw the way Teddy looked at Mina, the way he _focused_ on her. The way he _listened_ , ignoring everyone else.

She smiled, just a bit.

Oh, and now they were going to kiss.

Sickeningly sweet.

Teddy had apparently been watching some of these romantic comedies the sisters officially shunned (but quietly had watched), because he picked up Mina's hands and held them in his, rubbing them for warmth, all the time looking at her intently, blushing so sweetly Rose felt the need to look away from them.

A cough interrupted them.

"Ah, Dad," Mina smiled, had hands still in Teddy's.

"Mr Darcy," Teddy blushed even more.

"Hello, Theodore."

Dad managed to infuse that simple greeting with something very much like a threat and Teddy bristled at that.

"Sir," he straightened a bit. "We were just talking..."

"Teddy" Mina pulled on his arm. "Dad was looking at us all that time. He's just trying to scare you."

"It's working," Rose heard him mumble and snorted.

_He will do. I hope he is smart enough to stay._

 

####

 

Mina was beginning to feel a bit pressured by reality around her, but it was a good pressure. The schoolwork became easier and easier, what with her and Rose finally catching up with all the weird missing assignments since October and everyone was anyway in the full mode of Christmas preparation. The concert was going to take a lot of effort but with Mom and aunt Georgiana involved she was not allowed to accept too many songs - they chose an appropriate set and divided the practise time between themselves. Mina was assigned four carols she already knew by heart, so she would need only a small review with Mom for the new verses and a few days of practise with aunt Georgiana to make sure they had them down pat _and_ she was anyway practising daily with Mom for the contest that was to take place on the 23rd...

After quiet consideration, she dug out her boxes with yarn and her crochet hooks and started a new piece, just to have something _else_ to do among all that singing. It felt good to have a rather mindless task to keep her hands busy and her thoughts relaxed.

The fact that she could make a Christmas present that way was an obvious benefit.

 

####

 

Thankfully not much had to be cleaned in the house, as since the wedding most of their activities had been limited to work, homework, music and making preserves.

A medium-sized tree in a huge pot was installed in a sufficiently cold corner of the dining room and was immediately adopted by Mina and Rose, who took care to water it at appropriate intervals.

Elizabeth had prepared the dough for gingerbread cookies and placed it in the freezer for maturing.

A number of shorter pine and spruce branches were collected by the grounds crew and brought to the house to become the base of the smaller decorations and table wreaths.

Christmas cakes had been baked by Mrs Reynolds (who had brutally evicted everyone - even Elizabeth - from the kitchen for the time of preparation) and the girls were tasked with dousing them with chosen homemade brandy every evening.

There was glitter trailing everywhere, greeting cards were being decorated, written, signed and sent out every day - to their relatives (including Gardiners in Australia but excluding some others on the Gardiner side), friends (carefully selected, but including Elizabeth's master thesis tutor, because why not - and she added a note regarding her planned appearance at the Imperial to that missive), various kinds of coworkers, teachers and parents of the girls' classmates - and the Stricklands, of course. Elizabeth personally added the last one to the first mailed group.

William had ordered and collected a transport of gift baskets for both the company and the estate employees while Rose and Mina helped him to choose age-appropriate books for the children of his workforce.

Class Secret Santa was managed by the expedient of baking two trays of chocolate biscuits, as the persons that Rose and Mina had drawn from the pool were sworn fans of all things sweet. Mina had managed to sneak a few additional chocolate rounds into a separate box (Rose later reported that Teddy sighed heavily, hugged her and put the box in his backpack, while handing Mina something tiny). Mina didn't share any details and Elizabeth left it at that. They were all supposed to have some degree of privacy, after all.

 

#

 

Elizabeth made a brave attempt at finishing the large quilts she had started in London, but even with the help of their intended recipients she found she wouldn't be able to get them done by Christmas, so they decided, all three, to make it their winter project and work on them together, as part of their sewing lessons, once the holiday madness would end and Lizzy and Will would be back from their trip.

 

#

 

"You won't be disappointed that you won't get..." she looked up as the girls were helping her sort the fabric pieces into colours again.

"Mom, come on. There was a bunch happening this year. I know how much time it takes to sew this stuff and we are _not_ expecting anything that would take more than half an hour to make."

"But Rose doesn't have..."

"I do," her older daughter countered immediately. "Mina shared her things with me. We use them equally. I won't say I'm not sorry that my stuff is gone, but really, Mom. Doesn't make sense for you to overtax yourself, like you did before our birthday. I mean, I _love_ that dress and Mina loves hers but please please don't? And if we survive Christmas and everything, then we can make some New Year plans and, you know, do things in a more... relaxed manner. At least until the spring planting, because then Dad tries to stay awake all nights and becomes a zombie farmer..."

 

#

 

In general, everything was coming along rather... nicely.

Mina was steadily improving with daily practise.

Rose was steadily improving with daily practise.

Mina was learning the software that William had shown her on his office computer.

Georgiana was disappearing and coming back around midnight almost every other night (two o'clock on Fridays... well, Saturdays already).

William allocated two afternoons in a week to riding with Rose, as the temperatures didn't drop too dramatically and there was no snow at all.

There were no calls or text messages from Elizabeth's parents since the London trip and she considered it a good sign. Also, it gave her all the freedom in the world she needed to spend all her free time with her actual own family.

The house and grounds were being prepared for their visitors. The bigger potted trees were moved around and decorated in an ascetic manner she identified with William's preference for small, ecological and reasonable solutions. The gates and other non-functional items were wrapped in greenery and ribbons. The rooms were aired, checked 'just one last time', the mattresses shaken out and covered, the linens prepared for each room in sufficient amount. The rooms were strictly assigned, with assumption of all guests arriving, to ensure the greatest amount of privacy and the smallest potential for conflict.

Elizabeth had thought long and carefully where to put Richard and Evan, but the small yet comfortable room just next to Georgiana's won. Rose and Mina would clean up their "study" and Jane's middle girls would be put there, allowing her to rearrange the grownups a bit. Other than not knowing for sure who would actually arrive, they were more or less all set.

Just menus to be planned and some entertainment to be set up, to avoid the risk of everyone sitting in their rooms, ignoring each other or, even worse, getting into arguments!

 

####

 

Georgiana dug through the right storage closet and unearthed the tree decorations, so on the Friday evening a week before Christmas she herded the girls down to the dining room and tasked them with decorating the tree while she practised the carols she promised to play for the concert and Mina sang the ones she was supposed to sing. All this came, to their relief, easily and without any errors.

The tree was rather small in comparison to the amount of ornaments available, and yet, when most of the glass baubles were placed, Mina said something about needing one more box. Before Georgiana managed to ask what she meant, her niece dashed out of the door and ran upstairs, her steps thumping on the stairs.

"Mom? Mom, where are _our_ tree decor...!"

A door slammed and Georgiana rubbed her nose with her thumb.

_Oh boy._

Rose watched her anxiously, not understanding, but soon Mina appeared downstairs with a dusty box and weird expression on her face.

"Well, the box was in Mom's workroom, we are supposed to learn to knock and Dad is supposed to learn to make sure the door is locked like he thought it was," she informed them with a faraway look.

"What were they...?" Rose managed to stop herself almost in time, but Mina answered anyway.

"Judging by our last year sex-ed, something that usually results in siblings. Oh, don't look at me like that, you know they had to have done _that_ at least once before."

Rose blushed rather hotly and they sat in silence for a moment, carefully ignoring each other's embarrassment. Finally, Mina shook herself off and popped the cover of the plastic container open.

"Look, aunt G," she pointed. "These are ornaments Mom made. Rose, stop blushing like a Regency debutante and come have a look."

Georgiana welcomed the change of topic gratefully and pulled out several round ornaments. They were white, matte finished and covered with a netting of glass beads. She regarded them in silence then looked up at Mina.

"Elizabeth made these?" she asked slowly.

"Well, not the glass ball itself, them she buys. She said that the year I turned two she had a terrible cold through the whole of November and so needed to do something that didn't require a lot of thinking. Aunt Jane found a book about making Christmas stars, like this one," Mina pulled out a flimsy-looking white-and-silver decoration from somewhere deep in the box and handed it to Georgiana. "And Mom remembered having seen once a webpage of a lady who made ornaments covered with beads. She says she adapted the way the stars were made to netting these," she flicked one of the red balls with her nail. "And she's been making them ever since. We buy big boxes of ornaments cheap just after Christmas, because all the home improvement stores and so on don't like to store them, so they sell them for like a quarter of the price and then Mom covers as many as she can. One year she started in September and made sixty by the end of November. They went for charity auctions and so on."

Rose carefully turned one of the white ones to see the tiny beads.

"Mom calls this one 'Elsa' because of the colours. It's really pretty. We had a lot of aqua blue ones, but people bought them like crazy, and then there were the gold ones, too, and that disappeared just as quickly."

"But..." Georgiana bit her lip and looked at the half-dressed tree in the corner. "Isn't it a bit too much?"

Mina puffed out her lips.

"We can ask Mom to help us with these branches that Brian and Walter and others brought in. She already said she wanted to make a centrepiece for the table and little decorations to be put in every window and on any flat surface that doesn't hold something already. So, we will have a lot and lot to use them for. We just have to make sure to take them off when we remove the decorations in January, so that they don't get thrown away by accident..."

"Let's leave them in the box for now - the ones that you can't fit on the tree - and we'll ask Lizzy for her opinion. _Later_."

 

####

 

The Christmas concert was on Sunday, 17th of December and everyone was preparing for it with utmost care. The primary school "little choir" could sweetly sing all the required winter-themed songs and Mom accompanied them on her guitar. The highschool choir, comprised mostly of students who had braved the folk song contest, had been polished to high sheen and could produce a few more complex carols, while Miss Yang played Mom's piano. The best school piano turned out to be irreversibly damaged, so part of the proceedings from the tickets and collection during the performance would be going towards replacing it with a new instrument. Miss Yang was actually eyeing Mom's Yamaha with a hungry expression, from time to time...

And Mina, well, she was glorious. Her preparation for the competition ("Just one more week", she moaned on Saturday evening, "And I don't want to sing _anything_ until summer!") and for the concert itself took a lot of time and energy, but Rose was quite content to see her finding her place at school and in general Lambton under-18 society. She knew her sister felt a bit off most of the time (especially if parted from Teddy...) and so Rose cheered on all her efforts to establish her image and make a niche for herself. And if it was performing - well, Rose was happy to be the most faithful fan. Or the second most faithful fan.

Of course, there were stupid whispers. There would always be whispers, they knew that now, and while Rose couldn't be happier with her sibling's progress at integrating with their classmates and Lambton at large, some people simply couldn't understand how the two of them weren't always at each others' throats, sometimes even trying to stir up trouble between them. But they would persevere, because there were, after all, _two_ of them to face every challenge.

Well, not the concert, of course, and not the competitions Dad had signed her up for, but she was sure Mina would be there for her just like Rose would definitely be there for her to cheer from the audience.

And the concert was _now._

Both of them had new dresses, sewn by Mom's friend Evie (slightly loopy, but apparently a really great dressmaker), in deep reds and browns with golden accents. Mina was wearing her topaz-glass note pendant on a black ribbon, while Rose had put on the chain with a small bit of amber uncle Richard gave her for her tenth birthday.

Rose was happy her hair (since she was the one _not_ on stage) didn't require much more than combing, as her sister was now undergoing a small torture session with a brush and number with bobby pins, to make sure her hair was all out of her face.

The little choir would be singing from memory, because even if they managed to mess up "Jingle Bells" or "We wish you a Merry Christmas" mostly they would be found 'adorable' but the older choir had proper printouts of the needed lyrics, covered with notes and reminders, all smartly set into black-and-red binders. As Mina was running through basic warm-up with Mom, Rose observed the boys practising in the corner for the last time. Teddy and Vincent managed to keep the rest in check and it could be hoped that the whole thing wouldn't work out too badly...

Rose left them to their organised panicking and peeked from the side of the scene to check the audience.

_Half of the seats empty. Wonder if this is bad or good..._

"Rose, you should take your seat at some point," her sister was so silent in her ballet flats Rose nearly jumped out of her skin from fright. "Dad can't keep chasing people away from it forever and he does seem a bit lonely out there. What if some cougar sees him and starts hitting on him?"

Rose looked, terrified, into her twin's golden eyes.

"I'm just kidding! But go, go. Sit with him and represent the family, before I make a fool of myself in front of, like, half of this town, OK?"

"OK. And you won't. I'm sure."

Mina just rolled her eyes.

"Teddy will be there and that's distraction enough. Now, go, before the little choir runs all over you, they are like a little tornado..."

 

#

 

Sitting next to Dad on the right end of the second row, Rose turned to the side and watched people coming through the door at the back of the audience. Their classmates and older students dressed to the nines, all the parents and grandparents, all the little ones in their best holiday dresses and mini-suits and... Ooh. Uncle Richard. In a rather dashing suit and in his old greatcoat - that one that skirted the rules of wearing military uniform parts when off-duty, as Dad had complained once.

He joined them quickly and took a seat in the third row, leaning closer to them and resting his chin on Dad's shoulder.

"So what is the program?" he mussed up Rose's hair a bit, until she snapped her teeth at him. "Are Mina and Lizbeth both performing today?"

"And so is aunt Georgiana, and Miss Yang _and_ Teddy. But _only Mina_ has a solo, because Miss Yang didn't have time to have separate lessons with Teddy and to prepare him or anyone else. Mina has been practising with aunt Georgiana and Mom a lot, and I mean a lot, and there are two choirs, Mom is helping with the little kids..."

"Hmm. And how does she feel as a part of school entertainment, Will? I mean, this isn't exactly her kind of event..."

"Mom says that doing this with aunt Georgiana and Miss Yang makes it bearable and the little kids are OK, once they know what they are supposed to sing. Ooh, here she comes, so it will start soon."

Miss Yang walked up to the microphone and invited everyone to sit down, reminding the audience that the performance would be starting in five minutes.

"What about Evan?" Dad asked when others crowded around, looking for free seats.

"Didn't get time off. I can easily negotiate for a few free hours on a Sunday, but for him it's a much longer drive, so he would have needed at least one night off. But he does have approval for his Christmas leave, so expect us on the morning of twenty-third. I want to be here on time for the competition!"

"I wish Mina would win this time," Rose sighed. "She has been preparing so _hard_ and she really deserves to get the first place. Whatever it is that Teddy is working on."

"Oh. They are again competing against each other? Maybe these contests should have a non-competitive clause in their regulations, to make sure pairs don't participate in the same category," he laughed softly. "And how... how is she?"

Rose rolled her eyes.

"Perfectly happy. Well, apart from the dating restrictions, of course, but that can't be helped."

"Ah, _dating_ restrictions, I see. And what are they?"

" _No dating_ , not as such. They are not supposed to be alone outside, blah blah. And no touching other than hugging and handholding. At least they weren't told not to kiss... Ah, see? I feel cavities forming when I see them. Totally disgusting."

Mina, her song binder left safely on the music stand, was now fixing Teddy's bowtie and he was looking down at her with an indulgent smile.

"He has been watching way too many romantic comedies," Rose remarked in an undertone. "I mean, seriously, look."

Dad's soft whistle and uncle Richard's cough were an appropriate reaction - in Rose's mind - to the way Teddy deposited a long kiss on the back of her sister's hand.

"I see your point about the cavities," uncle Richard nodded slowly. "The only way they could get any more disg... Ah, well."

Teddy reached out and tucked a strand of hair (something had escaped the bobby pins) behind her sister's ear.

_Seriously._

"Yeah, that," she sighed. "And now..."

Teddy ducked his head and pressed a kiss to Mina's lips.

"Someone has to talk to them," uncle Richard groaned. "They are a menace to public health..."

"Lucy will," Dad pointed out. "She will want to put the choir in correct places, so... yep."

Miss Yang's hand pulled Teddy away by the collar of his shirt and pushed him firmly to the back of the little group of older choir. He only rolled his eyes and allowed himself to be manhandled by his much shorter teacher.

Rose quickly glanced at her sister and saw a small smile playing on her lips as she turned to the microphone set for her on the side of the scene.

"If I could ask everyone to be finally seated? Thank you," Miss Yang waved to the light operators and the whole hall quickly darkened, the only the lights over the exits and by the stage remaining lit. "Thank you all for arriving in such numbers to our first Christmas concert. I know that we don't have a tradition of such an event in our school, but I wanted our students to showcase their talents and, with the help of some of the parents and guardians of our students, here we are. The proceedings from the tickets and the collection will help fund a new piano for the school and to enrich the offer of after-school activities in the arts area. Helping me in this enterprise are Mrs Elizabeth Darcy, who had kindly lent us her piano for the purpose of this performance _and_ will be playing the guitar and Miss Georgiana Darcy who will be playing her harp."

The introduction was met with a round of applause and Miss Yang proceeded to introduce the little choir, the older choir and the soloist - Rose heard their classmates clapping like crazy when her sister was called to bow to the audience.

"We will begin with the little choir and Mrs Darcy. Elizabeth, to you."

Mom was already sitting with her guitar and the group of under-tens in front of her was giving her their full attention.

Their rendition of "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" was surprisingly coordinated and well-voiced and the audience seemed to appreciate it. Mom was most definitely _not_ the supporter of the 'louder is better" direction of choir singing. Fortunately.

The next one was "Jingle Bells" despite it not being specifically a Christmas song, but Mom said they had chosen, reasonably, something the kids would be able to sing without much additional learning. It was followed by "The Holly and The Ivy" and, then, very nicely, by "Deck the Halls".

Uncle Richard was humming to the melodies, making Dad repeatedly swat him with his gloves to shut him up.

"So..." he drawled in the break, when the little choir was taking their bows and Mom herded them off the stage. "Lizbeth is working with the younger kids, you say? Anything you want to share with the class, William?"

Dad swatted him with the gloves again, shushing him as Miss Yang introduced the older choir and sat at the piano.

"Twelve Days of Christmas" was arranged to show how well coordinated the choir was, girls and boys alternating on singing every other line, and they pulled it off rather successfully.

And then it was time for Mina and aunt Georgiana. The harp was gleaming in the limelights and Mina looked absolutely terrified as she gazed blindly at the audience.

"O come all ye faithful, joyful and triumphant...!"

The harp and the voice sounded wonderful together - Rose had heard them working on that at home, but somehow here, in the concert hall, it all gained some new dimensions, making her shiver at the way these two sounds matched.

By the end of the second verse Mina had relaxed visibly and was now even smiling slightly, nodding at aunt Georgiana as they segued into third one.

_Adeste, fideles, Laeti triumphantes,_

_Venite, venite in Bethlehem!_

_Natum videte, Regem angelorum_

_Venite adoremus, venite adoremus..._

Ah, so that was what they had been hiding all that time! Rose knew they must have been planning something more than just simple carols, considering the amount of time Mina spent on preparation, but she wasn't expecting Latin. Well, well, well. Probably studying Italian was of some use after all.

After two verses of that, it was again the choir's turn - Rose could only hope Teddy would shake out of his slightly dreamy focus on his ladylove in time, because he was one of the leading voices on this one. Fortunately "The Little Drummer Boy" was performed without a hiccough and again Mina took her place at the microphone, this time for "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing". The choir then went on to perform "Good King Wenceslas", with the boys delivering the saint's part and girls - the page's words.

Uncle Richard took out his phone and took a number of photos of Mina, the choir, aunt Georgiana and all the stage together, all the time humming the carols being performed, to Dad's unending annoyance.

The performance progressed, with all singers taking a break and aunt Georgiana playing a few songs with Miss Yang, each at her own instrument.

Finally it was again Mina at the microphone and it was "Away in a Manger", then the choir sang "Angels We Have Heard on High" as their last song.

"And now, for the last number of this performance, Mina Darcy will sing one more classical carol and you are all welcome to join in."

Rose watched her sister as the limelights all converged on her and she stood there, gleaming and bright.

 

_Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht,_

_Alles schl_ _äft; einsam wacht_

_Nur das traute hochheilige Paar._

_Holder Knabe im lockigen Haar,_

_Schlaf in himmlischer Ruh!_

 

"That little monkey," uncle Richard whispered with feeling. "She prob..."

_Swat._

The audience sang the first verse, now in English, together with Mina and the choir - and their aunt and Miss Yang. Everyone was singing, as far as Rose could see.

Including her father.

And, of course, herself.

With that amount of people making fools of themselves, she could finally safely sing aloud as nobody would notice anyway.

And then, almost too soon, it was done, it was all done and everyone was leaving and people were coming over to Dad, congratulating him on Mina's performance - as if he had had anything to do with that - and Dad kept explaining that it was all Mom's doing. And then people were turning towards Rose, asking questions that made her a little bit annoyed at the collective stupidity of grownups.

"Rose doesn't have to sing just because I do it. We are actual separate people," her sister was suddenly behind her, her tone bored yet irritated. "Is there some requirement that siblings must always do the same thing?"

The lady who had approached them froze and took a step back.

"I was just saying that with such talent... Seems a waste..."

"Rose can do other things that I can't. Am I supposed to learn them all, too?"

"Ah... I... I think my husband is waiting for me. Have a good day, Mr Darcy."

Dad sighed.

"Don't bite them, please? At least, not too hard?"

"She started it," Mina pointed out. "If she wasn't saying stupid things..."

"I know, I know. Let's get out of here, before someone else comes and _I_ feel tempted to bite them, too."

Uncle Richard picked up his coat and Dad led them to the side door where they were supposed to meet Mom and aunt Georgiana. Who they saw however - when the crowd let them through - was Miss Yang, looking a bit frantic.

"Ah, William," she caught Dad's sleeve. "We need you back there. It's Elizabeth. There has been an accident...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Here you can see examples of the ornaments Lizzy makes.](https://fanfik.wordpress.com/2018/12/29/stuff-elizabeth-makes/)


	35. To ward off winter chill - p4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Aaand the carol contest!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Someone on FFNet decided it was a bright idea to annoy me with an anonymous comment... Nevermind. Here is a new chapter for you :)

Richard and Evan had arrived first thing in the morning, straight from Richard's parents place. Having been warned about the general state of affairs in the house, they dropped their things in the last room and went to say hello to Elizabeth, who was pretending to be resting. In her workroom.

"She chased us out," Evan reported to William and the girls. "Anything we can help you with? Fold the napkins into swans? Polish the silverware? Keep up a witty conversation?"

"Tell me about diving in the Great Barrier Reef," Mina demanded immediately. "Rose said you took pictures!"

"Anything for our brave contestant," he smiled and sat next to where the girls were rolling the serviettes and stuffing them into holding rings. "Where is my..."

Richard handed him the tablet with a quiet "Here you are, love," and joined William on the other side of the table. "How is she _really_ holding up? I think she threw some yarn at us before told us to leave her alone."

"As well as you can expect. All her sisters will be here today, including Lydia. And her parents. Well, if they decide to accept the peace offering, that is. I still don't know why she keeps giving them more chances, but who am I to complain about Elizabeth's ability to forgive?"

Richard patted his shoulder consolingly.

"I think you are much better for her than her parents ever were. Now, we are here to help, whatever you need. At your command, cousin."

William allowed himself a small smile and his eyes met Rose's across the table.

"Offer accepted, cousin. Have a look at this To Do list with me and let's check what still needs to be done."

 

#

 

"Now that the two of you are engaged, are we supposed to call you 'uncle Evan' or are you OK with just 'Evan'?" Mina started with the first volley, once the photos were reviewed and the exotic dive discussed in details.

Evan actually blinked.

"I think just Evan will be fine," he said slowly. "I mean, I never expected to be someone's uncle - I don't have any siblings myself - so I'd rather have you call me just by my first name and not worry too much about formalities. I must admit, I would feel a bit old if someone called me an 'uncle'."

"But won't you feel like you are getting married to an old bloke if we call _him_ Uncle Richard...?" Rose leaned from the other side smiling as sweetly as she could.

"Well... He _is_ older than me anyway," Evan prevaricated, meeting their smiles with a grin. "But we could ask _him_ what he thinks."

"Uncle Richard...!"

 

#

 

Jane and Charles arrived bare minutes after Mary, so both families instantly gravitated towards the dining room, where a smaller table had already been set up for the kids and the grownups were in the middle of discussion, suddenly cut by Mina's cry of " _Three years older_? Teddy is barely four months older than me...!" and Richard's snorting out a surprising amount of tea at that pronouncement.

Mary and Jane left the children under the men's care and disappeared upstairs to check on Elizabeth. Considering the frustrated way Lizzy had been carrying on for the previous week, he dearly hoped Jane would be able to talk some reason into her. All _he_ wanted to do was to wrap his wife in several blankets and keep her in bed until she felt better, but she was not one to be coddled.

She actually kicked him in the shin when he suggested she could possibly rest a minute over the doctor-ordered forty-eight hours.

Richard greeted Charles with a slap on his shoulder and moved to the "small table" to have a better look at what the children were doing. Pretty soon he was involved in a rather silly conversation as he asked what exactly they were drawing. What finally attracted William's attention was Evelyn's clear "And the Easter Bunny brought a lot of bunnies with him," and Charles' little groan.

"And what did the Easter Bunny give to you, young lady?" Richard asked innocently.

"One of the little bunnies," informed him eagerly the little elf.

"Oh, I see. And what did you do with the little bunny?"

"I bit his head off."

William saw Richard's smile slipping a little and poked Charles in the ribs.

"Better tell him soon it was a chocolate one..."

 

####

 

Just after noon, Kitty, now finally showing, arrived, immediately herded her twins to the table and dropped into one of the soft chairs close to the fireplace.

"I am _not_ going up the stairs until I absolutely have to," she explained Ted's absence - he was dragging their luggage to their room. "When exactly is that whole competition thing and do we have time to eat before? I would gladly murder some lunch."

William checked the clock and nodded.

"We still have almost five hours left. That means lunch in an hour, then some rest for ones who need it and we all leave at four. On the dot. This way we will all be there way before the competition starts, we will find appropriate places, but Mina will not get too chilled... That fine for everyone?"

"What is for lunch?" Isabelle piped up.

"I think there is something for everyone, including the permanent carrot eaters and little carnivores," he mussed up Evelyn's already rather loosely tied ponytail. "Grownups? All in accord? We eat lunch at one and then meet by the cars before four?"

Having their agreements, he popped into the kitchen and informed Mrs Reynolds and two temporary helpers of the plans and went upstairs to try to convince his wife that the whole enterprise would not fail spectacularly just because she couldn't help with anything and maybe - just maybe - convince her to stop sulking and join everyone downstairs.

Nothing worse than a computer addict cut off from her fix because she couldn't type.

 

####

 

"Good evening! I hope everyone is keeping warm! Make sure to stomp a bit, it will help you keep the blood flowing. The stand with hot chocolate is on your left, the coffee is slightly behind it, so make use of them and ensure you have something to warm you up. We've already had the under-twelve competition in the morning, and all the delightful little ones that had been brave enough to come up here came away with a small reward. Now, because we're starting on more of a grown-up category, twelve to eighteen, we'll actually be judging the performance and giving points for it! So there will be a winner, a second place and the third place, and everyone else will have to console themselves with a cinnamon lollipop and some hot tea. I hope you're big enough not to require an award for participation, ladies and gentlemen" he made a face at the front rows. "Now, each of you had picked a different carol - that was the rule - and to keep the proceedings to reasonable time, you were asked to sing no more than two verses and two chorus repetitions. Is everyone prepared accordingly?"

A murmur of confirmations came from the participants' seats.

"Very well. You all have your numbers, and I have the list here" he weaved the piece of paper. "When I call your number, come up to the stage with your accompanist, take your places and tell us, in a few sentences, why you chose that particular carol."

Poor Vincent was first, again, looking a bit apprehensive, and the boy who followed him, holding a flute, seemed just as nervous.

"H-hi. This is my cousin, August. He plays the flute and we've prepared this song, you all probably anyway know it. We chose it because August thought the way the instrumental parts work on the flute sounded really nifty and I kind of agree. Also, it is the right size already. So. That's it."

August began the intro and it did, in fact, sound rather nice on the flute. And Vincent sounded as if he had been taking some lessons since the school contest. Probably the choir practice helped, too.

" _It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...!_ "

Mina nodded, pursing her lips. This sounded like a competition that would maybe, finally, be some kind of a challenge for her.

But she had an ace up her sleeve.

The judges nodded to each other and filled in some notes of their charts.

"Thank you, boys. Now, Number Two, Marika..."

 

#

 

"They were... terrible" Teddy grimaced as the duo of slightly shrilly girls finished murdering "All I want for Christmas".

"All the better for us" Mina smiled up at him and leaned on his shoulder. "But I hope you are prepared for a challenge, _Theodore_ , because I'm not going to be pulling any punches."

"Don't you worry your pretty little head, Starlight" he grinned cheekily. "Thomas and I have the _perfect_ thing worked out. You take care of your cute little song and we will show you what a real carol sounds like. Ouch! Rose, tell her to stop hitting me!"

"Mina, don't hit your boyfriend" Rose patted her shoulder. "You will get all sweaty and that's unladylike. And everyone is watching."

 

#

 

"Hi. Uhm. This is Thomas, my cousin, and he finally admitted this year he had been taking keyboard lessons, so I took advantage of this and asked him to play for me today. So, the thing is, our grandma - our mothers' mother - she is the one who first taught me to sing, and so I wanted to pick something that she used to like for today's song. And she died almost five years ago, just after the New Year of 2013, but that last Christmas she had spent with us, she had been listening to this one specific CD - I think everyone was - and I remember how happy she was, so I decided to pick something from that record. Miss Yang found the score for us and we've been working our... heads off for the last weeks, so, yeah. One of our grandma's favourite carols."

He straightened and smiled at the first rows.

Mina bit her lip.

_No no no no no._

Thomas bravely started the intro.

_Oh, Teddy._

Teddy looked up, over the listening crowd, and sang, his baritone ringing clear and strong. Mina hid her face in her hands.

_"Hark how the bells,_

_Sweet silver bells,_

_All seem to say,_

_Throw cares away..."_

He was better, much better than in September.

She felt Rose squeezing her shoulder from behind as she battled the desire to cry.

 

#

 

They watched the jury nodding over the marking sheets and looking up to glance at Teddy and Thomas appreciatively.

Mina smiled at him tremulously and caught his hands in hers, clasping them with all her might.

"How... how was it?" he asked, a bit out of breath.

She could only shake her head and tighten her hold.

"Good" Rose leaned over. "You're really _something_ , Strickland. I think I'll allow her to keep you."

"Rose!" Mina suddenly found her tongue. "You can't just _say_ stuff like that!"

"Well, I should have some say in who you date" Rose straightened and made a haughty face. "I will have to listen to you raving about him all the t..."

There was a fistful of wool now blocking her mouth.

"Shut up?" Mina suggested with a groan, keeping her glove over her sister's mouth.

Rose nodded quickly, looking over Mina's shoulder at Teddy, whose eyebrows had joined his hair at the top of his forehead.

By the time they sat down, Teddy again with his arm around Mina's shoulder, some girl on stage was making a reasonably good attempt at "Away in the Manger".

"She doesn't sound half as good as you did at the concert," Teddy's breath warmed her cheek. "You will do just fine, Starlight."

 

####

 

"Good evening, everyone" Mina's voice carried through the system to the square filled with people. "I was supposed to be here with my Mom, who had this whole arrangement worked out on her guitar, but a week ago she had sprained her wrist and she isn't even allowed to pick anything up. Which, as you may guess, makes it a bit of a challenge for her to play a guitar. I considered asking my aunt to accompany me on her harp, but the poor instrument wouldn't have coped very well out here in the cold, so I even thought - just for a moment - to sing a capella, but then my very best friend, who is also, quite by accident, my older sister, finally told me that she had been preparing, with Mom, in secret, and she can play the accompaniment for me today. So, we've spent the last week practising like madwomen and... here she is, Rose Darcy" she paused, waiting for Rose to climb to the scene, sit down and move the microphone closer to the guitar. "Now, Mom helped me to choose this specific song, because she says we always forget we take so much from other cultures and not many people remember that one of the English carols is actually a Ukrainian New Year song. It is supposed to be sung on the thirteenth of January, to be exact, but we hope nobody will be angry with me singing it for the contest."

She breathed deeply, nodded to Rose and corrected the position of the microphone.

_God, I really hope Teddy forgives me._

Rose bit her lip in concentration and began the simplified intro Mom had helped her to prepare.

_I really hope Mina knows what she is doing._

Mina shook her head and tried to relax.

What audience she could see was looking at Rose in surprise.

_Yeah, that's my sister. Two months ago she didn't even know how to hold a guitar properly._

She took a measured breath and tried not to think. They had been practising this for the whole week, ever since Mom came home with her wrist tightly wrapped and secured with a sling after she had almost broken her hand tripping over some stupid loose cables while holding her piano.

 

#

 

_Mom's sprained wrist looked horrible, swathed in white and supported by an elegant black sling. Mom as such wasn't looking all that well, at all. Her face was pale, all freckles standing out starkly, eyes closed and lips pressed into a thin line. Dad said something that Mina didn't really register, because all her focus was on Mom and her hand and that Mom couldn't really type one-handed and there was no way she was going to use these fingers and..._

_"I'll do it" she suddenly heard Rose. "OK with you, Minnie?"_

_"W-what?" she wrinkled her nose at the new nickname her sister invented out of nowhere. "OK with what?"_

_"Mom had been teaching me how to play your carol. She can't play for you now, and you need someone to play for you... Right?"_

_She didn't want to think about that. Mom wouldn't be able to do anything with that hand, yes, and that included playing the guitar, for sure. Without accompaniment... Well, aunt Georgiana on the harp... But it would be bad for the harp, what with the lousy weather..._

_"Wait, what? Mom has been teaching you to play the guitar?"_

_Rose nodded and rolled her eyes, a bit exasperated with her younger sister's slowness._

_"I asked her for something that I could do over Christmas, because the two of you will of course be singing and so on. Well, three, I suppose. It's not like it's rocket science."_

_"You could sing, too, you know" Dad touched her shoulder. "You just need to let go..."_

_Rose bristled, but Mom coughed quietly and squeezed his hand._

_"Twins. Not clones. I promised Rose I will not pressure her into doing anything she doesn't wish to and she promised she will tell me if she wants to try. Anything."_

_And so they spent the rest of the week practising like crazy, every hour of the day, until Rose's hands cramped and Mina had to shut up or lose her voice. Just to get this perfected on time._

 

_#_

 

She had to nail this.

Intro done - Rose did well with this one - don't look at the audience, Mina! - and...

 

_Shchedryk shchedryk, shchedrivochka_

_pryletila lastivochka,_

_stala sobi shchebetaty,_

_hospodarya vyklykaty:_

_"Vyydy, vyydy, hospodaryu,_

_podyvysya na kosharu,_

_tam ovechky pokotylys_ _’,_

_a yahnychky narodylys_ _’._

 

She wasn't sure what some of the words meant exactly, she hadn't had time to check the actual translation. Mom had written them down for her in such a way that she could learn how to pronounce them easily and then they mostly focused on the breathing and the melody. They had based their version on one specific solo of the Ukrainian version they had found online, but added the missing parts in, and of course redid the accompaniment for a guitar.

The general gist of the song was that a swallow had come into a house and sang to the owner that he was going to have a great next year with all the grain and sheep he had managed to harvest and raise.

She could only hope she would have a tolerable next year, because she wasn't quite sure her boyfriend (of two months) was going to be willing to talk to her after that one.

Because here she was, singing the original of the 'Carol of the Bells' and trying not to let her frustration with the reality win and squeeze her throat shut.

" _Shchedryk shchedryk, shchedrivochka,_

 _pryletila lastivochka_."

They slowly wound down to perfect silence. Silence which held for two heartbeats.


	36. To ward off winter chill - p5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Outcome of the competition and more family coming.

Then, there was clapping.

Right from the middle of the participants' seatings, where Teddy - barely visible to her through the glare of the lights - was standing, all tall and warm and looking up at her.

And the applause grew. And grew. And the whole big tent was clapping.

She drew a shuddering breath - taking a step away from the microphone - curtsied, gestured towards Rose, who bowed (her guitar a bit of an obstacle), curtsied again and turned to walk off the stage. Suddenly she was again cold, shivering and anxious and she gripped Rose's hand to stabilise herself.

"Come on" her sister whispered. "He was the first one to clap. You should be OK."

"But..."

 

#

 

The outcome of the contest didn't really matter anymore.

Other participants came and went, presenting varying level of dreadfulness.

Dad came by for a moment, handing them hot chocolates and saying that he found Mom a seat somewhere behind them, but didn't want her pushing through the crowd standing on the sides.

Rose was a warm, supportive entity just next to her.

But the most important was Teddy, who had still been clapping when she descended the stairs and who pulled her into a hug and who said, finally, his voice a bit unsteady "Grandma would have loved you for that". Teddy's "Grandma", as it turned out, had been in fact "Grandma Oksana". Her maiden name had been something Teddy had a problem pronouncing, but which was, apparently, a rather common surname from the part of Ukraine close to the Black Sea. And when she had arrived in England, as part of one of many groups of immigrants, she had remembered almost nothing from her home country except for a few incomplete songs and a handful of words.

And "Shchedryk" had been one of these songs. That was why she had welcomed the rising popularity of "The Carol of The Bells" with such enthusiasm.

Mina shivered and nestled closer into Teddy's side, burying her face in the warm fabric.

She hoped the end of the jury discussion would come soon so they could leave and she could retrieve Teddy's present from Dad's car and negotiate with her parents - and sister - for twenty minutes of uninterrupted...

"You OK, Starlight?" Teddy's cold nose nudged her temple. "You've been awfully quiet."

She shrugged. How could she tell him that she had just gone through what could count as one of the worst half-hours of her life - from the moment Thomas played the opening notes to the second Teddy hugged her when she came down from the stage?

"I..." she sighed. "Not sure. I just want them to be done already," she nodded towards the table where the group of teachers from all schools and some other local pillars of culture deliberated over the merits of each performance.

"Mhm. What do you think they will do to us?"

"They could disqualify me," she pointed out. "I submitted my entry after yours and I really really didn't think - I mean I was so focused on that Ukrainian version and on learning the lyrics and... I just didn't _think_. And then you went on stage and... really, if it was anyone else that sang it, I would have been fine with it, but with you and Thomas and..." she hiccoughed and forced herself to stop babbling.

"I suppose they could," he confirmed softly. "But if they do, I'll tell them to take us off the list, too."

"Teddy!"

"Well, I should have researched it properly and found the original words," he admitted with chagrin. "I mean, grandma really remembered little pieces of that song, mostly the melody, so she was happy when Pentatonix started singing it and it was everywhere, but I knew - well, I should have known - there was the actual original somewhere out there, I just... didn't think about it. And your Mom did."

"But you can't just... It's not only for you, it's Thomas, too!"

"Hey, I'm cool with it if he wants to," Thomas leaned closer and bumped Teddy's shoulder. "It was a fine thing, kid. Grandma would have probably hugged you for hours for that. She was happy when Teddy turned out to be able to carry a tune, so she made teaching him her little project, but if she found out he has a girlfriend who can sing that thing in Ukrainian, she would be planning your wedding by now."

"Thomas!"

Rose giggled from the next seat and some of their co-contestants joined her.

"Don't listen to him, Starlight, he is an idiot," Teddy mumbled, beetroot-red from embarrassment. "Seriously, I sometimes wonder if we are really related!"

"Don't worry, everyone has weird cousins," Rose supplied helpfully. "Ours are sitting back there in the audience - apart from one who is arriving later in the evening - so keep your fingers crossed that we don't push one of them into a stream or something."

"Lock _her_ in the broom closet, more like," Mina griped. "At least she would have to get to know some cleaning products for once."

"Oooh, look," someone pointed out. "They've finished!"

Indeed, the judges were back to their places and everyone's attention turned to them. Sudden onset of vertigo made Mina clasp both Rose's hand and Teddy's.

"Thank you all for waiting so patiently," the elderly woman in the middle - 'choirmistress from St Mary's,' Rose whispered - stood up with a flourish of paper. "It had been a very tough task for us to make the right choice after the great performance you had all delivered and I must admit we arrived at the final verdict still divided. We have however made the decision and, well, here it is. First, there will be two special awards for merit, for songs that had drawn our attention in particular, due to either a challenging instrumental or a demanding vocal part. That doesn't mean that these singers cannot improve, but we see that they have undertaken a serious task and practised hard."

The kids awarded these were actually acceptable, in Mina's opinion. The carols they choose were maybe over their level of competency, but they were brave attempts on their side and the performers deserved to be recognised.

"For the actual numbered awards... In the third place, we have Andrew and Anna, whom we recognise for a particularly spirited performance and an unusual take on that song."

As the pair walked up the stairs to the stage, Mina looked at Rose with a questioning look, but all Rose could do was to shrug. She hadn't been paying attention after their own turn, mostly focusing on her sister and her beau.

"The second place goes to Vincent and August, as we admired their work on the material chosen and very good interpretation on the flute."

All four in the first row froze, breathless.

However much they had declared that they didn't care and that they were ready for the judges to disqualify Mina and Rose or for Teddy and Thomas to resign in solidarity, the very fact that none of them had been called to claim the second place was chilling.

They had been good. All four of them - Rose had to admit, she was the weak part of that comparison, but Mina was _perfect_ and so brave and... Rose's fingers around her sister's tightened and she saw Teddy's large hand tremble as he inhaled with a hiss.

_That's not good._

"As to the first place... As you can guess, I suppose, it was a challenge. Of unexpected proportions, I may add. In three years that we've been having this competition in our town, we hadn't had this kind of a conundrum! One of the suggestions tabled was to disqualify Mina and Rose using the excuse of a replacement of accompanist," the evil eye she gave one of the other jurors betrayed the culprit. "That would not have been fair, as accidents happen and we all commiserate with Mrs Darcy on losing her mobility at such a busy time of the year. Another suggested justification was the duplication of songs, and this had some merit, but the fault here lies also on the side of the contest submissions staff. It was their duty to safeguard the uniqueness of titles chosen and one of them should have verified what it was that Mina was planning to sing. Which they didn't. Someone suggested that they should be taken off the list because the carol was not British. Well then, we would have had to ban "Silent Night", "O Christmas Tree" and "Come All Ye Faithful"! Not to mention the Carol of The Bells itself. Also, it would not do to make Lambton look like a primitive village inhabited only by sheep, cattle and wild farmers. We are not afraid of the world coming to us and we are not afraid of children who remind us of the influence other cultures have on ours..."

She looked over her professor-y half-moon glasses at the petrified group in the first row.

"Therefore we are granting two first-place awards ex aequo. Mina, Rose, Teddy and Thomas. Please come up here and receive your diplomas and awards. Both pairs have performed, in their own class, incredibly well, with the boys taking the traditional approach to the carol that had been sung by so many performers it is starting to fray at the edges and girls taking even _more_ traditional one, going to the roots of its origin. Now that I think about it, we should have expected something of the kind after your school concert, mind you..." she rambled as they climbed the stairs, Rose following her shivering sister and Thomas bringing up the rear. "Now, you two," she waggled her finger at Teddy and Mina, "I have a suggestion for the sake of all future singing competitions in the neighbourhood - I have been there for your school contest! - next time, please, pick a duet and sing it together. It will cut down on arguments in the jury considerably."

Mina blinked and looked up at Teddy.

Rose managed to smother a giggle, because at the exact same moment Teddy looked down at his Starlight with wide eyes.

"Ah..." he stammered. "That may be, actually, a fine idea... If you agree? Mina?"

"Or we could refrain from competing," she countered softly. "You know... give others a chance?"

"Oh, I think you shouldn't go that far, not at all. Nothing encourages good performance better than some healthy competition," the lady judge grinned. "Now, as we've pronounced you all equal winners, you will have to divide the prizes between the two teams, but I hope all of you will find them... quite useful. The music shops in Matlock and Chesterfield have funded these..."

As the judge listed shops that had sponsored the event, Rose peered at the gift card certificates handed to them and whistled silently at the sum. Quite soon they found themselves herded off the stage and down the stairs to where three sets of anxious parents were waiting to hug them and congratulate all around.

"Thank you all for participating in this exciting event - as we said at the beginning, everyone will get a cinnamon lollipop, sponsored by the Wonder Candy Factory, thank you very much! Please come back in half an hour when we will be holding the competition in the grown-up category!"

 

#

 

"Oh, kitten, you were so _brave_!"

Rose found herself hugged by Mom with all Mom's might - left-hand-hugged, trying to avoid bumping into the cast. While Stricklands congratulated Mina - well, with her connection to Teddy, it made sense - Mom seemed to focus mostly on Rose.

It felt surprisingly satisfying.

Dad was now hugging Mina and, oh, there was uncle Richard taking a photo and their aunts and... Oh, everyone.

It finally hit Rose with the strength of a freight train.

She, Rose Darcy, had gone on stage and played the guitar. In front of people. Strangers. Family. Friends. Classmates.

Rose Darcy had taken part in a music-related competition and was in a team that got first place award. Ex aequo, yes. First place all the same.

"Mom?" she whispered in a tiny, tiniest voice. "We won this thing, you know?"

"Yes, kitten, I was there. I saw you. You were brilliant and absolutely fantastic. And I'm so, so proud of you."

"But it wasn't me who did most of the work!" Rose protested, feeling a need to explain this all away. "It was... I mean, it's not like it depended on _me_!"

"But it was a much bigger challenge for you emotionally," Mom kissed her temple. "And you did it wonderfully."

"Listen to your mother, kid," uncle Richard's hand came down on her shoulders. "You were both pretty good up there."

"Yep, Rose," Mina threw her arms around her, finally relaxed. "Couldn't have done it without you, you know?"

She knew.

Well, she supposed.

It was so good to hear it.

 

#

 

"First place."

"First place, Starlight."

"I can't believe it...!"

"When they called Vincent as the second, I thought, just for a moment..." he shook his head. "I'm not sure I was as ready to give up this prize as I tried to look."

"Which is fine, you know. I wasn't all that ready to be disqualified either."

For a moment, nobody was watching them, with grownups all talking between themselves and other kids running between chairs, pushing the neat rows apart.

For a moment, Teddy just smiled.

For a moment, she just looked at him.

A tiny, short kiss. Just to remind each other.

"Don't hit anyone over the holidays, Starlight," he requested seriously. "I wanted..."

"Are you Mina's boyfriend?"

_Jackie..._

"Yeah," Isabelle joined her sister. "I saw you at the wedding. You were crawling under the chairs. You gonna kiss now?"

_Not anymore, no. Thank you, darling little cousins._

"Ah, well, I suppose I am her boyfriend, yes."

She managed to regain her breath and smiled as kindly as she could.

"Jackie, Bella. This is Teddy, and yes, he is my boyfriend. And no, we aren't going to kiss for your entertainment. Shouldn't you be watching Evelyn or something?"

Jackie shrugged.

"She is tormenting your uncle Richard and his boyfriend. Dad has Johnny," she gave Teddy a long, taxing look. "You seem OK. Are you a computer geek like Mina?"

"Ah, I..." he blinked and looked at Jackie like a rabbit caught in the headlights. "What?"

"Are you a nerd, a jock, band geek, art freak...? Sportsy or brainy?"

Mina was completely lost for words.

It was however yet another of these cases when it was good to have an older sister.

"Jackie, go away. And I _will_ tell aunt Jane that you were binging on 'Mean Girls' again, if you don't stop classifying people by school cliques," Rose appeared by her side for just a split second, pushed a soft package in her hand, murmured something about Mom having it in her handbag and whisked Jackie and Bella away in one fluid movement.

Mina hid her face in Teddy's coat lapel for a moment.

"So sorry," she mumbled. "I have so many many little cousins and I love them all, but... but!"

She felt Teddy's hand patting her shoulder. He was shaking.

_With laughter._

"What?" she sniffed.

"Your little cousins are very protective, that's all. It's... cute?"

She pushed herself up and looked up at him.

"You wouldn't say it if you met their youngest sister. I swear, that kid eats only meat and sugar. Don't ask her about Easter bunny if you want to stay sane. Uncle Richard made that error today and he still looks at her funny."

"Hmm... OK. No asking about Easter bunny. Anything else?"

She stood on tiptoes and pressed a kiss to his lips.

"Nothing comes to mind. But, you know, Merry Christmas, Teddy," she pushed a soft package into his hands.

"I... ah, Mina..." he caught it, flustered. "I... I gave you mine already and you gave me cookies and..."

"I know. But the cookies were just a placeholder. This is the real thing. Come on."

He poked the silver and blue striped package carefully.

"Soft. Light. Doesn't rattle, I suppose," he chuckled. "Um... I think I should put it under the tree and open it only on Christmas Day, you know. Like a proper present."

"Seriously? You going to try that?" she pouted, crossing her arms in front of her.

"OK, OK. I'm opening it! You see, opening, already..."

He peeled off the tape and unwrapped the package, pulling a long, midnight-blue scarf from it.

"What...?" he asked, dumbfounded. "You..." he turned it in his hands. "You made this? I mean, I... Wow. When did you manage?!"

"Yep. During practice. And on the bus. And watching movies. And most everywhere. Finished it today morning."

"This is... Wow. I mean it, it's perfect."

"Come here," she reached around him with the scarf and made a neat loop. "You forget to wear one, all the time, I know it. So I thought if I made you one, you may have better incentive to wear it, you silly boy."

"I..." he buried his face in it and sighed. "Thank you, Starlight."

He hugged her, pulling her closer and laying his cheek on the top of her head, her hands warmed in the space between them. They stood like that, for a minute. Or maybe just a little longer. Nobody interrupted them, which was a miracle in itself.

She felt him clasp his hands around her back and giggled, straightening up to look at him again. His face was still reddened from excitement and the scarf had ridden up from where she had tied it, covering him up to his nose, but she knew he was smiling.

"Good thing you usually remember to wear your gloves, because I can't make these yet. Mom wanted to teach me knitting in a round, but with all what has been happening this fall..."

"No... I mean, yes, well, I usually put my gloves in my pocket, so it's harder to... a-ah!"

Teddy sneezed, turning away at the last second.

"Sorry, sorry. Took me by surprise. Wasn't expecting that. A-ah! Damn..." he started digging through his pockets, coming up with a package of tissues at least. "Oh, thank goodness. Oh, my nose. So sorry, Starlight. Can't... AAAh!"

Everyone stopped talking and turned to them, watching, as Teddy battled another sneeze.

"That's not good," he sighed, wiping his face and glove with another piece of tissue. "Sorry, Mina, this has-- Achoo! --seriously, though, what the-- Ach! --no, this is ridiculous...!"

Teddy groped behind himself, fetched a chair and collapsed into it, still wrecked by a sneezing attack.

She didn't even manage to react when he bent in half helplessly.

"Mom, do you have some tissues? Teddy is... Oh, my."

Teddy's eyes were reddened as he sat up and accepted a new package gratefully.

"You look terrible," she blurted out. "I mean, this is... You are all red. Mom, where is Mrs Strickland? Teddy is sick... I think."

Mom twirled in place and strode towards Dad, who in turn found Teddy's mother. As she approached, Mina sat with Teddy, patting his back in an attempt at comfort and handing him a tissue after a tissue.

"Oh, Theodore," Mrs Strickland sounded just like Mom sometimes did. "Take off that scarf, you silly boy, or you will sneeze to death. Come on, I'm certain we have some eye drops at home."

Teddy's head shot up and he hastily freed himself from the blue wool. Mina took the offending garment back in mortification.

"I forgot to check," Teddy sighed. "I don't react like that to _all_ wool. Damn," he blinked and sneezed again.

"Come on, we have to get you Zyrtec before you start rubbing your eyes. So sorry, Mrs Darcy, but we have to take him home..."

"I understand," Mom sounded really worried.

_Not good._

"I'm sorry," Mina managed to stammer. "I didn't know! I'm so sorry!"

"Not your fault, Wilhelmina," Teddy's mother stated kindly. "But we really have to go home now."

Teddy hugged her tightly at the last moment.

"Don't worry, Starlight," he murmured. "I'll be fine. I'll text you tomorrow, OK?"

"Yeah," she sighed. "Tomorrow then."

 

####

 

Elizabeth watched the stage surreptitiously as they left the tent and the adult category competition was starting, but they decided not to stay around for that. Everyone made their way towards the back of the large tent and left its slightly warmed interior, coming into the chill of the outside.

"Bloody cold," Richard murmured, turning the collar of his coat up.

"Come on, love, let's get you into the car," Evan pulled him ahead of the rest of the group. "We can warm up when we are back home, hmm...?"

"Poor Mina."

She looked up at William, who was watching their younger daughter walking to the parking lot, shoulders in a dejected slump, blue scarf fluttering behind her in the gathering wind.

"Happens. She isn't allergic to anything common, fortunately, so she didn't even think about it. Poor kitten. I will make sure she has a cousin-free time tomorrow to call him and make sure he is fine. We can't let girls pester her, and they will try to. She is the first of their generation to have a boyfriend, after all. They watch her carefully."

"Avant-garde then," he quipped, pulling her free hand through his arm. "How do you feel? Hand OK?"

She tried moving her fingers.

"More or less. Less, I suppose. I just hope they will take the cast off in a week."

"I checked with the airlines," he admitted hesitantly. "If they put you in a brace before we leave, there should be no problem with flying."

"Oh."

She squeezed his arm slightly.

"Thank you, love."

"M-hm."

 

#

 

By the time they arrived back home, children were pretty much ravenous, so the dinner was served quickly and very soon most of the younger ones were dropping off where they sat, bellies full and heads tired from all the excitement. Very quickly, the dining room was empty but for Rose and Mina, who, buoyed by their success (even if Mina was a little subdued now), were still up and functioning, gliding around the table and collecting the plates.

William pulled her out of her chair and herded her upstairs, to their room, where a significant heap of bigger and smaller presents awaited being wrapped and addressed. With her arm in a sling she obviously couldn't participate directly, but she could serve as the knot-holder and scissor-finder.

She knew perfectly well why William insisted on them isolating themselves, at least temporarily. She was fretting.

"Stop it, Liz," William sank down on the couch and pulled her into his lap. "They will come or they won't, but there is nothing you can do about it now. You gave them all a chance. I know it's family and it's hard, but if they don't take you up on that offer... well, at least they will have declared themselves, right?"

She slumped against his shoulder and nodded.

"Now, close your eyes and let me hold you for a moment," a big hand went down her spine, over the rust-red t-shirt, kneading the stone-hard muscles of her back on the way.

"Mhm," she relaxed a bit more, face pressed into the thin cotton of his shirt. "Will...?"

He stroked her sides, massaging the tension from where she kept herself stiff and alert all day, guarding her hand against any new injury.

"Hm? What?"

"I love you so much," she sighed. "I... sometimes I wake up and check if it was all real. We went... it all happened so fast. I think part of my head is still in London and I'm trying to... I don't know, patch it together. In panic, usually."

"Mhm," he pressed his face into her hair. "Sometimes when I wake up and you are not there, I have to check if your things are still by the bed. I..." he sighed. "I caught myself checking if there are still two of them," he nodded towards the girls' rooms. "The level of sheer coincidence... Well, helped by Jane, certainly. But still!"

They sat for a moment in silence, hands calmly exploring one another, quiet dimness of the room relaxing and drowsy.

"Do you want them to come?" he asked finally, voice uncertain.

"I... No idea, really. If they don't come, it will be over and done. If they do come, it will mean they had accepted my choices and so..."

A bell rang somewhere downstairs.

"Ah," she straightened and pulled the cast back into the sling. "Some answers are coming."

 

#

 

All four were there. Lydia and Adele looking slightly in awe, father rather more blase about the whole thing and mother watching William suspiciously. She gave the same regard to everything she passed by - the great hall, the stairs, the corridor and their bedroom.

Even the dinner table didn't escape her scrutiny and when Adele wandered towards the decorated and well-lit Christmas tree, she pulled the girl back, explaining furiously something about it being an actual real tree from a forest and that Adele should be careful not to let it fall on her.

Elizabeth glanced at Lydia, but her sister simply sighed and rolled her eyes.

"There is some spaghetti that I can heat up for you," Elizabeth suggested. "Or salads... Or sandwiches, whatever you prefer."

"I will warm up the spaghetti," William suggested. "You should..."

She rolled her eyes and smiled.

"Yes, I know, I know. Go. And put the kettle on!"

"Yes, ma'am!"

"Coffee? Tea? Adele, do you want some lemonade? Apple juice?"

"Tea," her father grunted. "Children should not be drinking cold things before bed."

"Adele?"

The girl looked away from the Christmas tree and glanced at the grownups in surprise.

"Milk?" she asked. **Asked**.

"Milk it is then. Lyddie? Mother? Tea? Or something else?"

"Obviously, they will take tea."

"I am actually asking _their_ opinion, Dad," she said calmly.

"Milk for me, too," Lydia answered unexpectedly.

"Tea, Elizabeth, tea," her mother trilled. "Oh, but this is... rather fetching, isn't it?"

Elizabeth turned to check what her mother was pointing at and, well, it was. Rose, Mina and Georgiana (with some help from Lucy, who dropped in several times during the previous week - official reason being discussion on the merits of electric pianos) had done good job with the little wreaths, using the surplus ornaments, strings of sparkly plastic beads, gilded walnuts, pompom and felt snowmen and faux-snow paint.

"The girls made enough for the whole house. I actually had to stop them at some point, as we've run out of flat surfaces to put them on."

"Ah..." her mother chewed on this for a moment. "Very nice, indeed. And..." she had a look around. "How big is this room actually?"

"Sixteen feet by eight," William informed them, coming out of the kitchen, holding a tureen. "And fifteen feet up, which is why it sometimes feels like it had been turned on a side. Thank you, girls," he turned to the twins, who had just emerged from the door, bringing plates and cutlery from the cupboard. "Set the table, Rose. Mina, come help me with the tea."

"And milk for Lydia and Adele," she called before they left the room.

Judging by her father's dark look, she was in for some parental talking-to. It was a toss-up whether the excuse would be milk as such or the fact that she openly opposed him and asked Adele for her own preference.

 

#

 

They managed to get through the rest of the late dinner in relative peace, with Rose and Mina joining them, pouring themselves some milk and sitting between William and Adele on the shorter side of the table. Pretty soon all three girls were yawning widely and the twins were tasked with escorting Adele to her and Lydia's room and showing her around. She hoped the fact that they were on their own territory would make it easier for them to manage their cousin, at least slightly - Adele seemed to be a bit subdued anyway, probably tired after the ride.

The adults sat in a quiet room, each sipping from their own cup slowly, as if nobody wanted to be the one to leave first. Finally, William finished his tea and rose to collect the dirty dishes. Unexpectedly, Lydia helped, handing him the few from the other side of the table and following him with the tureen.

"Don't you have some help in this house to do that?" her mother asked querulously. "It should be left to some..."

"Everyone is in their beds by now, mother," she sighed. "We can't expect them to be up all hours of the night."

"Well, but..."

"It is 2017, not 1817," Elizabeth interrupted her firmly. "People have rights, you know. Proper rest and all that."

She wasn't going to explain the way they had to hire two helpful college students for the holiday - both young women anyway looking for a job in gastronomy over the school-free period and quite happy to get a two-week assignment at Pemberley, including room and board _and_ a pay twice what they would have made as waitresses. And much more reasonable hours.

"Well, if you put it like this..."

"Yes, I do. Let's get you up to your room now. I hope you like them, but if there is anything that you need, tell me at breakfast tomorrow."

"And what time is _that_?" her father finally broke his sullen silence.

"Half-eight to nine, depending on the children. If you are down here earlier, you will be able to at least drink your coffee in relative peace."

An annoyed "harrumpf" was the last thing she heard until she closed the door to their appointed room behind them.

The only hope was that it was exhaustion from the long ride. Otherwise it was going to be a very long week.


	37. To ward off winter chill - p6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Christmas Eve.  
> With some explosions. The metaphorical kind.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not much to say about this one.  
> Note: Brief mention of the fact that Elizabeth does not attend church. In case someone is sensitive to that kind of thing.

"Elizabeth! I simply can't stand this any longer, I saw it yesterday, but I just couldn't ask when he was standing there and _looming_ over us! What has that man done to you!?"

Lizzy looked up from over her coffee, watching in confusion as her mother trotted around the table and started prodding at her bandaged hand.

"Stop it! That hurts... Mother, what on Earth are you about? Please pour yourself some coffee and sit down... Mother!"

"Have you had this seen by a doctor? I mean, I suppose you wouldn't, that always happens, but you have to! The police...!"

"Lizbeth, what is that...? Oh..." Richard stopped in the doorway, surveying the unusual tableau.

"Oh, but this is terrible!"

"Mother, _sit down_. What the hell do you mean?!"

Elizabeth, in short, felt like crying. A good, proper crying spell would probably do her a world of good. She was tired. The competition had left her drained, she had been focusing on the girls so much. The painkillers made her drowsy. She couldn't even dress herself without William's help. She had to walk everywhere in stupid slippers or ballet flats. She couldn't type, because left-handed typing _sucked_ when one was deeply conditioned to use all their ten fingers and to touch-type. There were no crafts that she could do with only one hand and no kitchen tasks either. And if someone told her once again that she should relax and read a book, she would slap them with the full collected works of sir Arthur Conan-Doyle. In hardback. She knew William had at least two of these, one in the "old collection" and one in the "for reading" part of the library.

Or, if she felt particularly angry, she could use the collected works of H.P. Lovecraft. That one was a shade lighter, being a paperback, but it did have a nicely done embossed and gilded Cthulhu depiction on the cover.

She removed her injured hand from her mother's grasp and replaced it in the sling.

"I slipped after the concert last week," her explanation was as calm as she could make it. "Sprained my wrist. It had been seen by a doctor, yes, and I am supposed to keep this clean and safe and in this support sling. So please _stop poking at it_."

"Oh, so this is the story?" her mother shook her head. "Lizzy, darling, you have to leave him _now_ if that is what he does to you!"

"Mother! Will you stop this!?"

"Mom?"

"Rose, go to your room, please," she managed to utter. "Richard, take her... make sure no kids come in. And _keep William away_."

"Will do. But..."

She took a shuddering breath and looked at him pleadingly.

"Just do that? For me?"

The door closed somewhere and she heard Rose's inquiry from behind the thick wood.

"Good, now, tell me what happened? Why... I know he would be bad for you. He was always so... so dark and angry!" her mother was immediately by her side and visibly straining to touch the cast. Elizabeth looked at the older woman mutely.

This was the person who had created her and carried her for months.

Laboured for hours to bring her to this world.

Cared for her when she was tiny.

Dressed her, fed her and probably did other required things.

The same woman who never expressed a shred of trust in Elizabeth's ability to manage her own life.

But never had Elizabeth felt as remote from her as at that very moment. It sounded as if they were speaking two different languages.

"Mother, William doesn't hit me. How could you even think that? Does father hit you?"

"N-no, never! You know your father!"

"Well, apparently not as well as I thought I did, because something made you think _William_ would have hit _me_. Why then?"

"He is so... tall. And he looks like..." her mother shook her head. "And _you_ look like..."

"Can you please finish the sentence?" Elizabeth moaned as she repositioned the sling. "And no," she leaned back when her mother reached out. "Don't touch me. I know very well that you don't really care for my well-being. You just want me back under your control, because where would I go if I had to leave William? Don't pretend you are really worried. And don't touch my hand!"

"Elizabeth!"

Her mother recoiled at the call and the bang of wood on plaster when the large door was opened and William pushed his way past Richard bodily, removing the soldier's hold on him as if it was a friendly hug. He was by her in a few strides and interposed himself between her and her mother.

"William, I asked Richard to keep you out for a reason," she looked up, into the crystalline eyes that were now narrowed in annoyance. "I need to resolve this... this thing by myself."

"Rose came to fetch me," he said softly, bringing her closer. "She said she was afraid you were going to murder your mother with the tea set. I rather _like_ that tea set so I thought I should come here and stop you."

"William!"

"Sh," he turned her face up and kissed her, in a way more applicable in a bedroom than in the dining room... especially in front of her parents, yeah, because now father decided to join the fray.

"Wil..."

He pressed one more, close-mouther kiss to her lips.

"Will you be fine?" he asked, ignoring his (unknowing) parents-in-law.

"Yes, William," she whispered against his lips. "Now, let me deal with them? Keep the kids away from that... it was wrong of me to involve them before, I think. I have to correct this, now."

He rubbed her nose with his in a mute negation.

"They have to learn that adults sometimes are stupid, too. Just in case it didn't stick after aunt Catherine," he murmured. "But I will. Just... if you need me, I'm here."

"I'll call."

"M-hm," he kissed her again, quite chastely, and turned to look at her parents. "Everyone who wishes to come to church today is gathering in the hall at half ten."

"But Elizabeth..."

"Mother, I'm sure William has managed to notice my non-attendance in the last few months. Now, can we get back to the topic at hand?" she smiled at her husband, who simply closed the door behind him. She knew he would be just behind that thick piece of wood, ready to come to her assistance...

"And that would be?" her father frowned, looking from her to her mother in annoyance.

"Mother thinks William is beating me up."

"Elizabeth! He could be listening!"

"Seriously though, daughter. If there is an issue between you and... that man..." her father said slowly, even portentously. "We will not be adverse to... having you come back to London. You could live in our house, at least temporarily."

"Wait, wait..." Elizabeth sat heavily at the table and propped her forehead on her hand. "You two honestly believe that William is being violent towards me?"

"We have no reason to suspect otherwise," her father said with a smile that looked about as fake as her mother's sudden interest in her well-being.

"What would you like to see as a proof? There is no way to show it any better than telling you that he had never...!"

"So why did you run away from him? The moment I saw you in our drive all these years ago I thought that this... heartless creature must have hurt you!"

"He was so angry during Jane's wedding and kept looking weirdly at everything and everyone. He ordered the waiter around, was short with your mother _and_ got into an argument with some of my cousins," her father pointed out.

Elizabeth stopped herself from performing the most iconic Captain Jean-Luc Picard facepalm, but it did require some strength of will on her side.

"That was because he asked for replacement dish for _me_ and that cousin insisted on smoking in place where it made the smoke go into the main room," she explained slowly, looking over their heads at one of the portraits of William's ancestors. The man was standing with one hand on his hip and another on some kind of bench and seemed to be watching her inquisitively. _What are you doing here?_ he seemed to be asking. _Defending your great-great-something-grandson's honour, you stiff, pompous arse_. "Have you ever seen him hit someone? Threaten them? Shout at them?"

"Well... He always looks like he would! And why else would you have came back to London, if..."

"When you appeared with... _Mina_ , I didn't want to ask, but..."

They sounded so reasonable. So... idiotically reasonable.

They were quite convinced as to the correctness of their estimation of William.

_Seriously, how did we five manage to grow up to be more or less normal!?_

"So, because he acted a bit rudely during the wedding, which was the second time you've seen him in your life, and because he disagreed with you openly about that stupid dish, you've created an image of William being... what, forceful? And when I came back, you thought I've run away from a violent partner, but you've never said anything? You never asked about Rose, even though you knew I had had twins. You didn't really care about her, at any point, did you?"

"Well, it was _your_ decision, I mean..." her father made a squeaky sound.

"And when I decided to move back here, all I heard from you is 'he is not good for you', but nothing specific. You again chose not to say anything. Too lazy? Too cowardly?"

"Elizabeth!"

"Oh, don't 'Elizabeth' me, mother. I'm not sure what you are playing at, but I won't get taken in by your 'concerned parent' mode anymore. Go and be concerned about Lydia, please."

"Please, no," Lydia snorted from the door. "I've heard only half, but do you two really think that Lizzy is a battered woman? Are you serious? This is bullshit. I've heard Rose telling the kids how he carried Lizzy to their car to ride her to A&E. Half of their school saw it."

"Well, they would! That child would say such things - he is the one who brought her up!!!"

"Oh, God," Elizabeth collapsed on a soft chair by the now-dark fireplace. "No, I've heard enough. I want you to pack," she said finally. "Eat, go upstairs, pack, bring your things downstairs. You can come to the church with us, but you will leave afterwards. No, not you, Lyddie. Just them. Apparently they still can't accept it when I'm telling them how things are and they can't understand that William and I are not something they can pry apart," her mother spluttered and waved her hands wordlessly. "And my children are still some kind of little kobolds to be afraid of, especially Rose. Now, I will let everyone else in so that they eat, because nobody deserves to wait for their breakfast that long just because the family seniors don't have enough brains to share between two persons," her father bristled and made a sound, but she only raised a hand and rolled on, talking over whatever it was that he was trying to say. "You two will keep silent. I don't mean quiet conversation. I don't mean all kinds of supposedly-kind remarks. I mean keeping your mouths occupied with eating and drinking to the exclusion of everything else."

"Elizabeth!"

"I meant it, mother."

 

#

 

Breakfast was a strained affair, with the children being very subdued at the 'little table' and grownups eyeing each other uncomfortably at the main one. Only Richard and Evan were bright and happy, seemingly unconscious of Lydia's wide-eyed stare and mother's squint of noncomprehension, pouring each other coffee, toasting a bit of bread, fetching eggs and being in general disgustingly sweet.

Finally, Rose (as the three oldest girls were allowed to sit with their parents), leaned forward and asked Evan something in an undertone and Elizabeth tried virtuously not to ask for them to speak up - it reminded her of aunt Catherine's worst custom of demanding every private conversation to be discussed publicly...

"No, we didn't," Evan answered, a bit more audibly. "I mean, we didn't discuss it with Richard's parents in detail, but it would be on their estate, absolutely. And there is an officiant who lives near Matlock, who is a friend of Richard's brother, so we will try to coordinate with her. Otherwise..." he shrugged. "No details. But..." he glanced at his partner with a small smile. "I think we will be looking for some support in organising it all. A good ringbearer is always needed."

Rose frowned, then sighed "oh" and nodded.

"And if Mina could sing something from one of Richard's favourite musicals...?" Evan winked at Mina, who nodded mutely, her mouth full of scrambled eggs.

"Then we are all agreed," Richard leaned in to kiss Evan's cheek. "We will set it up sometime at the end of school year, but before summer starts in earnest. I don't want to faint in my full uniform again, do I?"

"No, you don't. Even though you would have your handsome husband to catch you by your side then," Evan smiled and kissed him back. "But _I_ still have to make up my mind whether to order a suit or to request approval for using my dress blues."

"Well, that will be rather decorative," William smiled at the duo. "I dearly hope there will be no interesting mishaps during the ceremony."

Jane choked on her tea.

 

####

 

Lambton was cold. Not overwhelmingly so, but the wind seemed to behave like a little dog that writhes between humans' legs and bites them at random moments. Rose felt momentary relief at having worn her black trousers, but her sister had decided to put on a dress and was now looking a tiny bit miserable, despite her ankle-high boots.

Once they were all standing in front of the parish church, Mom and Dad had disappeared, leaving them under aunt Mary's care - and their grandparents' watchful eye. Rose led the whole set to the pews on the right, following Dad's instructions, and managed to get the two of them seated as far from the oldest generation as it was physically possible.

That didn't spare them grandma's ramblings. Unfortunately.

"Where is that girl!?" the matriarch turned in her place and surveyed the church anxiously. "She told us all to go inside ahead of time and now she is the one who is going to be late! Jane! Where did Elizabeth go?"

"Mom, please" aunt Kitty leaned on her. "Everyone is looking!"

"But...!"

"You don't have to make that much fuss, my dear," grandfather added absently. "Everyone already knows you are unhappy, no need to bring even more attention to it."

"Mr Bennet!"

"Mom!"

Rose and Mina glanced at each other.

"Because, really! Everyone will see them being late, and they are living in sin!" grandma hissed while aunt Jane covered her face with both hands and groaned. "Everyone will be looking at them as they walk to us! The whole church!"

"MOM."

Thankfully at that point the door on the side opened and the parson came out, smiling. And then he... winked at them?

Rose turned back cautiously to look for her parents, but at that same moment Mom and Dad appeared out of nowhere and sat next to them on little folding chairs taken by Dad from the rack by the wall. They were both smiling. And holding hands. In church.

Grandma was making dying swan sounds.

"Dear friends" the priest tested the microphone and smiled kindly at the congregation. "Before we begin, I have a few announcements. As you all well know, this year our congregation has been collecting money for the benefit of the elderly care unit in our town hospital. I can now happily inform you that the target sum has been reached much ahead of schedule! The money collected will be used to create a better library for the long-term patients, including audiobooks and text readers for these less than perfectly sighted. Our largest donators, as of today, are Mrs and Mr Darcy. Thank you!"

A small murmur of support washed over them.

"Our next collection goal will be much more prosaic, fixing the wall and the fence around the churchyard, especially from the side of the Church Lane, where the stones are loosened and threatening to fall in many places. We will be holding a small auction for that purpose, on the twentieth of January. I will ask you to kindly donate..." he droned on, but Rose became more and more conscious of the murmuring and huffing coming from the general direction of her grandparents.

"Mrs Darcy?" grandma hissed finally. "When did that come about? How can they claim... They didn't get married! I would have known!"

"Not like Lizzy needed your approval or permission," aunt Kitty answered quietly. "She is old enough to do it when and how she wants."

"Kitty!"

Everyone in the little church quieted, looking at the pews taken by their family.

Rose felt she was going to die of sheer embarrassment.

"Is it possible to cringe to death?" her sister whispered at the same second.

"No idea, but I think we are getting to the moment when this hypothesis may be tested."

That test, however, was postponed. Their grandmother, despite her numerous weaknesses, was socially conscious. At least in the meaning of "What will the neighbours say". And here she was, in the middle of a church, far away from home, and _everyone_ was watching her. Even the parson looked at them for a moment in silence and then, as if nothing had happened, continued the mass.

 

####

 

_The parson - Reverend Andrew Matthews - had been sympathetic to their explanation when she and William first visited him at the beginning of December, and he presented them with a solution._

_"We could just have a private ceremony of blessing in the smaller chapel for you," he suggested. "Not like we do a lot of these, mind you, so I would have to read up on it, but it should be pretty straightforward. You are married, according to the law, so the only thing I can do for you now is to cover the more... spiritual side. I know for a fact that William is a mostly-observant Anglican, but what about you?"_

_"I suppose you could call me a very much lapsed one," Elizabeth shrugged. "This is mostly for William. "_

_"M-hm. And your girls? They were baptised in this church, that much I know from the books, and I know that Rose attends - as much as William does... What about the second girl? Wilhelmina...? Actually, what_ _**were** _ _the two of you thinking? It is a gross unfairness to saddle a girl with a name like this! Who thought it up?"_

_"Actually, it was my idea," Elizabeth admitted._

_"I hope you are very sorry for that," the reverend grunted. "Poor kid. Well, never mind. I will make you an offer you cannot refuse. You give me time to check on the procedures, because I really can't recall the last time someone needed that particular service, and I will pencil you in for after the eleven o'clock mass on Christmas Eve."_

_"You don't usually marry people during Christmas, Andrew," William pointed out with a tone of surprise._

_"And people don't usually get married on a Sunday. However, the two of you are already married, you just need a few words from my side. Or would you prefer it to be some Saturday in half a year, because that is the first free slot I think we have... mid-June?"_

_"We will take it," Elizabeth patted William's hand. "Don't look the gift horse in the mouth, William. You told me that yourself. We will take the Christmas Eve blessing and thank the reverend for such a convenient date."_

_"Ah, a balm to my ears. Someone to put William in his place, finally. I think, Mrs Darcy, that we will be great friends," he winked._

_"Well then, I suppose you can call me Elizabeth," she stood up and extended her hand._

_"And you can call me Andrew, like William does," he shook it._

_"I used to call you many other things, out there, on the field," William remarked with a grin. "But I will refrain from passing these on to my wife, don't worry."_

_"I can still beat your sorry..."_

_"Khm."_

_"Yes. Very much so. Well then... The twenty-fourth, noon."_

_"I hope to see at least some of you before that day!"_

_"I think we can safely promise you that much," William shook his hand. "We will have to come by with the documents anyway, right?"_

_"That's not what I meant and you know it, William!"_

 

#

 

Andrew was mercifully succinct in his prayers, probably spurred on by the substantial risk of the mother of the not-really-bride exploding in the back of the chapel. Elizabeth was trying not to hold her breath in fearful anticipation whenever she heard the tiniest rustle from where her parents were sitting and had to forcibly prevent herself from turning to check what they were doing.

William squeezed her hand a few times in the time it took Andrew to go through the ceremony and she felt his supportive warmth reaching out to her every time the noise behind them intensified.

Quite soon they were being congratulated by the reverend and hugged by their daughters, sisters and cousins, while Elizabeth's parents stood by the last pew in the miniature side chapel and looked quite undecided whether to run away screaming or just scream right where they stood. Her mother, specifically, seemed quite furious.

Once they were done and Andrew had bid them all goodbye, Elizabeth turned on her heel and, as quickly as she could, at a brisk walk, she left the chapel, forcing the rest of the family to follow her hastily. William and the girls soon caught up with her and joined her by the Jaguar.

"Grandma and grandpa are leaving now," she informed her daughters tersely. "They behaved... Well, things they said in the morning were way outside of anything I expected."

Rose groaned.

"So why did they come at all? Just to be nasty and see if you call them out on it?"

"No, they..." Elizabeth sighed. "It seems they were assuming some very stupid things about your father all that time, and what happened before breakfast was them giving voice to these assumptions. I tried to correct it and they didn't believe me. End of story."

"So... What now?"

"We say good-bye and they leave. Aunt Lydia and Adele came in their own car and they can stay, but I'm afraid that's it when it comes to your grandparents."

Neither of her daughters seemed very unhappy about that pronouncement.

Everyone else soon joined them and they were now crowding the space in front of their cars on the church parking lot, all relatives watching Elizabeth and William, unsure of what should happen next. The "next" followed speedily, when her parents arrived, slightly short of breath, and her mother started berating her for not having invited them to the wedding and what exactly was she thinking, marrying such a man and what did it mean, register office, this was _not_ a real marriage!

"And this is one of the reasons you are now kindly asked to leave us alone," William stated aloud, amongst his sisters-in-law, brothers-in-law, collection of nieces and nephews and his own daughters. Elizabeth leaned into him and closed her eyes. It was supposed to be holidays. Family time. Time of forgiveness. Time of forgetting.

Maybe it would be a good time to finally forget about giving people too many second chances, actually. That would probably be of benefit to all of them - starting with Rose and Mina.

"Just as William said," she pronounced carefully. "Now, we are going back to Pemberley and you two are going back to London. If, at any point of time in the future, you suddenly feel the need to renew the contact, think very carefully about what you said throughout this morning. Think about the accusations you made towards William and... Don't contact us."

"Elizabeth, you can't just..."

"Yes, I can. We can. It is for our own good. We will only maintain relationship with people whose presence in out lives isn't a cause for constant struggle. You do not fit into that category," she took a shuddering breath and squeezed her eyes shut. "I hoped, I really hoped you would be able to accept my life choices. It seems you are not. Why then should I try again...?"

 

#

 

The lunch was quiet, oppressively so, even. Finally both of her daughters excused themselves, gathered Adele, Jackie, Bella, Nat, Aggie and Yola and dragged them upstairs, leaving the grownups with the youngest kids. Elizabeth felt like curling up under a blanket in a darkened room, but couldn't manage to pick herself up from the chair, so she sat, a bit hopelessly, staring into the darkening horizon outside.

"Daddy," Evelyn clambered into Charles' lap. "Why did grandma and grandpa go home?"

"Because they behaved badly in the morning, darling."

"But..." the little elf scrunched her nose. "They didn't want to say sorry?"

"No, they were pretty stubborn about not saying sorry," Elizabeth provided quietly.

"But couldn't you just, like, put them in their room for a time out?"

"Well, I suppose I might have tried that, yes," Elizabeth felt William shaking with laughter next to her. "But I don't think they would have stayed put."

"Evelyn, this is like with Bernie from your preschool. Remember Bernie? He used to pull your ponytails. Imagine you invited him to a birthday party..."

"No. I will not invite Bernie to my party!"

"I didn't mean you to really have him over, but just imagine that you invite your whole class and Bernie too. And he promises to stop pulling your hair, but he does it anyway and it hurts a lot. We can't put him in time out, because he will break everything in the room he is kept in. So, I'd say we could tell him to leave with his parents. What would _you_ do with him?"

"Bite him onna leg!" Evelyn had maintained her wide, hopeful smile as she declared that and adults couldn't help but laugh.

 

#

 

Sometime during the afternoon the youngest ones started dropping off, so they were gathered for a nap, meanwhile the oldest set, excluding Mina and Rose, took over the bigger table and eagerly set up three separate games. Evan allowed himself to be invited to play Monopoly with Jackie and Kitty's twins while Elizabeth decided to join Adele and Bella at The Kids of Carcassonne. That left Yola with no partner for her deck of Serpentina, but that was soon resolved with her own father coming back once Johnny dozed off.

Several rounds were played in quiet cooperation before Elizabeth thought to ask for the whereabouts of her own children.

"Rose asked us to give them two hours of quiet," Jackie informed them as she rolled her dice. "Sugar. Prison again. I suppose they wanted to deal with some, you know. _Preparation_."

Ah, well. Probably they were wrapping gifts like crazy. Mina had had time to take care only of the gift for Teddy - poor boy! - so whatever it was that they had gathered as presents for the family was probably being dealt with right now.

They were definitely entitled to these two hours - and the bribe they used to get their cousins to leave them alone was quite smart, too.

"Aunt Lizzy, wake up, your turn," Adele waved her hand in front of Elizabeth's eyes.

And that was the other thing.

Adele.

Behaving like a normal kid. More or less.

She pouted much more than the other oldest three and she did seem a little picky during the breakfast - but so was Yola, Bella and Evelyn, each in her own class - and maybe clinging to Lydia more than Rose and Mina would cling to their parents - but she was in a strange place, so...

And Lydia decided they should stay. As Elizabeth had watched their parents getting into their car - wounded expressions of persecuted innocence and all - she saw Lydia pushing Adele slightly to where the other kids were listening in fascination to Rose telling them about some picnic organised by the parish two years previous.

And they stayed.

Kitty tried to question Lydia's reasons, but only got a slight eyeroll and a mumbled "Would rather stay here, where Adele has someone else to talk to," and Elizabeth told her to lay off. If Lydia wanted to stay, good. That was the whole point of this invitation after all. To make sure they were spending this time with family...

And if it managed to get Lydia to think more about her future, living with their parents or not, all the better.

She even asked her youngest sister if she wasn't afraid of the consequences, but Lydia just shrugged. "They won't throw me out - not with Adele - the neighbourhood would eat them alive. I will patch it with them somehow, more or less," she sighed. "But I'm definitely not going back to London until I need to. Delly will be much better off here. Thank you for inviting us, Lizzy," she added in an undertone. "I mean it."

"Oh-OK. You're welcome to stay until New Year, just like everyone else. We are leaving on New Year Eve, but Jane and Charles will be here until the third or so."

Lydia blinked.

"Where are you going? Don't you need to, like, get the twins to school or something?"

"Lyds, they are fourteen. They walk to the stop in the morning, they catch the school bus and they manage it all quite by themselves. Georgiana will be here to make sure they get out of the door on time, but that's it. They will survive for two weeks without us."

"B-but... Aren't you like, afraid they will get lost?"

She looked at Lydia closer and tried to understand what was worrying her sister.

"Oh. You still go with Adele everywhere, right? Or mother does?"

"Well, yes. Basically. I don't think I will ever be able to just, you know, let her _go_."

_Oh, Lyddie. Lyddie._

"At some point you will have to - and you know it! Maybe... Let's treat this week as training ground, what do you say? There is a forecast of some snow for the next few days, so most of the kids will be outside. Well, all of them, I suppose. So if you've packed some snow overalls for Adele and you can stand not hovering over her for a few hours each day, she may get some taste of self-managing in the company of other kids. You will get some training at letting go in a controlled environment and Adele will get some exercise outside with the kids. Just remember, Mina is a menace with a snowball."

 

####

 

Presents wrapped and their special project finished, the twins relaxed on their beds, making use of the temporary freedom from their lovely, lively little cousins. Mina checked her mobile once again, making a face at the screen.

"How is he?"

"Sneezing or sleeping. His mom is terribly unhappy with him for just putting the scarf on without checking. He says he just forgot because the scarf was so fluffy."

"No way."

"What? I saw it, I was there. He totally forgot."

"No, I mean - he used adjective 'fluffy' in a written conversation?"

"Oh, shut up."

"He is probably feverish. But this may be a perfect blackmail material, you know. If he doesn't do something you want, you can threaten to show it to his rugby mates."

Mina pushed herself up on her elbow and looked at Rose with disdain.

"And you claim to be the older one, Rose Darcy."

"What?"

"If I want Teddy to do something, I _ask_ him. If he doesn't want to do something, he says he doesn't. I'm not going to _blackmail_ him into thing, thank you very much."

"You are no fun."

"None at all."

They rested for a moment in silence.

"Rose?"

"Hm?"

"Do you think they will like it?"

"I bet they will. Better yet, they _need_ it."

"Good thing aunt Jane could bring them."

"Good thing you thought of the idea."

"Good thing you asked aunt Mary to buy the book."

"Yep."

A minute passed. Or ten.

"I think we should go downstairs before they start looking for us."

"Definitely. Monopoly?"

"Monopoly."

 

####

 

In the middle of the night, two slight figures sneaked out of their room. Bare feet made no noise on the stairs and they uttered no sound as they slithered down the stairs with a bag of tiny rustling packages.

Only the door to the dining room squeaked as they pulled it open, surprising two people already inside.

"Uhm," Mom said as she straightened up from where she had just been kissing Dad, sitting on the carpet by the Christmas tree.

Rose just grunted something about 'grownups' and pulled Mina inside, shutting the door. They quickly deposited their little heap - carefully! - next to the other small hills of packages and several bigger boxes and turned to their parents.

"Just don't try to peek, is it clear?" Rose threatened, while her sister mimed "I'm watching you" at their parents.

 

####

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I suppose I could quote a well-known meme and say "that escalated quickly", but I think it had been brewing for ages.  
> Next:  
> 7\. Christmas week  
> 8\. The trip  
> 9\. The rest of January  
> And the Epilogue.  
> Yep, if everything goes according to my CURRENT plan, 4 more posts and we'll be done.  
>  **However! Due to birthday-heavy week in my family and with me expected to bake 2 birthday cakes, I can't promise you anything sooner than than 2 weeks. Unless I catch a cold, of course ; >**
> 
> Comments, of course, welcome. And if you see I've used an Americanism instead of UK phrase, please let me know. I will argue about a lot of stuff, but l will always be happy to accept this kind of correction.


	38. To ward off winter chill - p7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A Christmas week at Pemberley

Christmas morning dawned bright - terribly bright - and it was full of noises like 'squee!' 'leggo!' 'mine!' and 'Momma!!!'. Therefore all parents (and godparents, and aunts...) migrated downstairs, yawning like crocodiles and slightly bleary.

The girls from Yola up were guarding the heaps of presents heroically, diving from time to time for some package in order to stave off the attack of the non-yet-reading kids. Finally, Charles, Jane and Mary had disabled the assailants, allowing the more lettered ones to play the role of pyjama-clad Santa's helpers, delivering the successfully defended presents to their intended recipients.

Elizabeth had curled up on the sofa, digging her toes in under William's thigh and wrapping her mobile hand around a cup of coffee, while Evan, obviously led by some chronicler's reflexes, took photos of everyone and everything.

Adele and Lydia looked rather surprised when each of them had received a few packages of their own, but Elizabeth had also espied some small items being placed in others' hands that had definitely been wrapped by her youngest sister - the violent pink and mint green of the wrap simply screamed 'Lydia'.

 

#

 

Jimmy was sitting and watching, fascinated, as the keys on the little plastic keyboard lit up to the rhythm of the song.

"It can be put on quiet and let him try to repeat the melody," Elizabeth advised and Mary fished out the instruction booklet from under the heap of paper, looking for the way to turn the volume slightly down.

Charles allowed Evelyn to run around in her dinosaur-shaped green fleece hat and knit gloves with felt claws and entertained Johnny with a package of Duplo blocks with animal figures. Yola and Bella were trying not to shake too much of excitement over a shared box of assorted beads and cords - a proper real set, not one of these store-bought 'jewellery kits' that anyone could have bought without thinking much about it, full of peeling plastic pseudo-pearls and uneven acrylic 'crystals'. Elizabeth had carefully chosen it by herself from her own stash and several online beadshops, picking the brands she knew would deliver the quality for reasonable price.

Jackie was still helping Rose and Mina to distribute the presents, and - to everyone's consternation - Adele joined them in the effort, quietly delivering the grownup gifts around the table.

Aggie was squealing with joy over the kid-sized sewing machine (fully functional!) while Nat sat on the floor by her chair, hugging an unopened box of Meccano construction set (5 different models of motorcycles). There were other presents for the younger twins waiting around them, but is seemed these two had hit the bullseye and Elizabeth was quietly proud of herself. Kitty was giving her an evil eye from over her own Meccano set of Pocket Bike, while Ted was trying not to collapse with laughter any time he saw his wife with a box of construction blocks.

In general, it seemed that her presents - although she failed to make as many as she usually did with her own two hands - were quite well received, including the varied artisan cosmetics she had at the last minute purchased on a whim at the local soap shop in Matlock.

She relaxed further and leaned back. Soon, quite soon Rose would find her main present. Considering the way she held on to Elizabeth's own guitar after the concert... Ah. Here it was.

A small lull in the general buzzing of all voices.

Mina looking at Rose with wide eyes.

Rose's wide eyes.

"Mine?" her voice broke suddenly. "A-ah, I...!"

"You got a guitar, just like you wanted, see?" Mina pushed the bagged instrument into Rose's limp arms. "You don't have to spend your prize money on it now!"

"I, but..."

"If it makes it any easier, the back of the tag says you are supposed to share it with me when I decide to finally start learning how to play it," the younger sister pointed out. "You should have look at it, hm?"

"I-I should?"

"Yes, you ninny. Open that bag and show us... oooh."

Elizabeth felt William's grip on her ankle tighten as Rose's eyes opened wide at the sight of the dark purple finish and dark blue details. She ran her hands over the coloured wood and fingered the woven strip decorated with floral pattern.

"Ooh, pretty!" her sister vocalised for the two of them, while Rose nodded frantically and sat down, cradling the instrument to herself.

Elizabeth sighed with relief, until the very last minute unsure whether Rose wouldn't see the gift as an attempt to pressure her into learning. A passing remark from Mina, saying with regret that their gift certificates were split between shops in such a way that Rose couldn't buy herself a guitar, provided a glimmer of hope, but that was only after the competition! While the guitar had been at the house already for a week prior!

There were books - everyone got at least two - cosmetics, some random gag gifts - William was given a huge block of eraser with a caption "FOR REALLY BIG MISTAKES" - scarves, small kitchen items - Kitty was a collector of novelty ice cubes trays, of all things - some stereotypically not age-appropriate objects (starting with Kitty's construction kit and ending with a sparkly set of pink and purple hair ties addressed to Elizabeth) and an extension box of marble run, matching the one the twins had fallen in love with in London. Richard and Evan received a machine that shot paper airplanes - "So that you also have an Air Force installation in your household" and were now wooing Jackie, who had just torn the wrapping away from a thick book of paper airplane designs (paper included).

Suddenly, Adele was approaching them on the sofa, holding a rather thick package of a vaguely big book-ish proportions.

"Aunt Lizzy?" she asked somewhat hesitantly. "I... this is for you. Both."

"Thank you, Delly," Elizabeth freed her of the object and watched her scurry back to where Rose and Mina were working out the recipient of yet another package.

 

####

 

The dining room was full of people. It was warm, it was loud, it was lovely. Georgiana sat on the floor next to Yola, who was now considering carefully which LEGO Technic box to tackle first, while Bella was already trying out her new brush markers on a piece of paper.

Georgiana's presents - in a small, neat tower placed safely by her hip - were all thoughtful, somewhat funny and rather fitting, but that really didn't matter. What mattered were the people. Elizabeth's family surrounded them, filled the big old house with noise and laughter and inappropriate remarks at the worst possible moments and they made it so _alive_. She could look back at the Christmases past and the best one she could find was when aunt Catherine had accepted an invitation from her brother and taken Anne with her - uncle Henry had carefully phrased it in such a way that she never questioned why William, Rose and Georgiana were not included in it.

Thankfully.

But this? This was the best Christmas _ever_ in her life. Now and in the future. Even if other holidays would come, with more or different people or with more children, this one would forever be the golden standard of Christmases for her to hold others against.

She looked up when the atmosphere in the room changed.

Silence.

All the children stopped chattering, as one.

Elizabeth was crying, shaking in the circle of William's arms. Her face hidden in her hands, bent over a large book. William's hands all over her shoulders and back.

_Oh, God._

She turned to see her nieces, who were now sitting, completely white-faced, Rose's guitar and Mina's knitting mill forgotten in their laps.

William pulled Lizzy closer, kissing her temple and saying something too softly for Georgiana to hear, but it seemed to settle her down. Rose and Mina still looked too terrified to move. Georgiana caught Mary's eye from across the room and nodded at the twins. Mary rolled her eyes expressively, checked on Jimmy (up to his elbows in a bucket of snowflake-shaped construction blocks) and rose to have a look the girls.

_Oh, my. Lizzy took it much harder than they expected._

And she, Jane and Mary had helped.

She winced as she joined Mary almost at the same moment as Jane sat next to Elizabeth.

"I'm sorry, Lizzy," they heard her say. "I thought it was a splendid idea. They wanted you to have an album of the both of them... I brought over my photos and Mary found hers from the time when you were living with her, and Georgiana helped with Rose's part..."

Elizabeth gulped for air and shook her head at the same time.

"No-not..." she hugged Jane tightly. "I just can't stop... Oh, Jane! All of you, you... I just can't _think_!"

"Come on, kids," Charles stood up abruptly. "Let's make a little cleanup here, to make sure no toy is lost with the papers and we can let aunt Lizzy rest a bit, hmmm?"

He herded most of the little ones away, leaving Jimmy (still focused on his bucket of blocks) and the twins (still sitting stiffly, unsure how to proceed). Georgiana nodded at Mary and each of them put a hand on the shoulder of her respective goddaughter.

"Come on," they pushed a bit, making the girls stand up. "We have to talk to them. All of us."

 

####

 

Elizabeth didn't know what to say. She opened the album on the first page - Georgiana's old photo of both girls together, cribs side by side, each sleeping in her own little cocoon, and it still hadn't hit her yet.

But as soon as she turned the stiff cardstock, she felt as if her heart wanted to leap out of her chest.

Twins first birthday.

She had felt so poorly that week that she made a couple cupcakes to hold the single candles, and that much only because she knew that if she didn't do something, a certain _someone_ would have bought an extravagant cake and lord (or lady) it over her to no end. This way she had at least marked her involvement.

Despite the fact that all she wanted to do was to curl up on a settee in the nursery and sleep.

Right now all she wanted was for everyone to stop looking at her in such terror. Including her own daughters. And her oldest sister.

Jane said something and it forced her to answer, she wasn't sure what exactly and if it even made sense, but there was movement around them and Charles was herding the kids across the room. In seconds, Mina and Rose were standing in front of her, terrified to the bone that they had done something wrong and she was explaining to them that quite to the opposite, they were wonderful, so wonderful and she never ever wanted all of them to be separated, and that the present was lovely and she just couldn't really stop crying, but she was not _angry_.

They sank into a three-way hug, and with William's arms coming around them, Elizabeth finally quieted, her shivers subsiding.

"I'm sorry, Mom," Mina sighed into her shoulder. "I thought you... We wanted you to have them all in one place... And we..."

"They have captions," Rose blurted out. "All the important stuff."

A loud *snick* brought them back to reality and they all looked up at Kitty, who was standing there with a sheepish smile, waving a small square of paper in the air.

"You will have one more to add to that huge album," she handed the photo to Elizabeth and they watched as the picture slowly developed and focused in front of their eyes.

"And many, many more," William whispered into her hair. "I'm not letting go of you, ever again."

"You'd have to pry mi off with a crowbar."

 

####

 

Mina spent the rest of the week either sleeping off the exhaustion of December or glued to her phone, texting with Teddy (who managed to convince her finally that his mother wasn't blaming her for the disastrous outcome of her gift and that she was in fact in awe of Mina's singing abilities) so Rose was mostly left to her own devices. Or rather, to their cousins' company.

The huge house allowed almost unlimited space to play hide-and-seek (with several restrictions added by the adults, starting with "no door slamming"), but the best moment came when the snow started to fall at last, despite the not-so-promising forecast.

The next morning Rose, helped by Dad, managed to unearth two differently sized wooden sleds (one with a backrest), two pairs of plastic skis and a few smaller, apple-shaped sled-like objects that she couldn't recall ever having used. Dad just sighed, smiled innocently and stripped the last one of its label.

"Yes, I bought them last week. Just in case."

In half an hour all the cousins (and her sister) were dressed warmly and toddling around the garden, gathering the snow and sending first shy snowballs towards each other - or their parents.

Jimmy, under Mom's care, started rolling up something that looked - if one was a tolerant cousin - almost like a snowman, while aunt Mary turned to have a rather deft hand at smacking people with well-aimed snow projectiles.

Pretty soon everyone except for Mom, Jimmy, aunt Kitty and Johnny was running around the lawn trying to scoop up some snow and lob it at someone else - a kind of all-on-all snow battle.

Then there was a walk up the hill and sledding down. Another walk up, some more sledding. Uncle Charles holding a shrieking Johnny - shrieking with laughter, fortunately. Evelyn throwing herself dramatically onto one of the plastic sleddies and getting stuck at the top of the hill because of the accumulated snow and the fact that she was much too light. Aunt Mary pulling Jimmy along on a path, using the high-backed sled. Yola trying to ski for the first time ever - good think the plastic skis could be attached to any shoes. Jackie managing to bring down an entire branchfull of snow directly on her head...

By the time Dad called them to go back to the house, everyone was slightly sore, rather wet, very tired and murderously hungry.

Just as they should be.

 

#

 

Rose would never know later who had brought the chocolate Santa Claus to the table, but the whole experience was rather eerie and Evelyn's involvement certainly didn't help. Also, someone would have to tell uncle Richard to check which child he was answering in the future.

On the third day of proper snow fun, when all the shoes were soaked through and the heaters all around the house were surrounded by drying trousers, jackets, hoodies and socks, Mom suggested hot chocolate. It was received with general applause, so Mom and aunt Jane disappeared into the kitchen in order to prepare the treat in sufficient quantities to satisfy all the hungry mouths. Other sweets were also brought forth and Sonia (one of the students Dad had hired to help), with Rose's assistance, served tea and coffee.

The chocolate Santa had been sitting there though that whole time and finally Jackie asked if it wouldn't be a good idea to maybe eat him because after all chocolate can't wait forever, right? The expiry date was checked and confirmed to be rather short, so it was quickly agreed that the heavy figurine should be divided into reasonable pieces with a knife.

Evan was dispatched to the kitchen in search of an adequate tool and came back equipped with a medium-sized, heavy... cleaver.

The next steps of the proceedings were documented by aunt Jane with her phone, allowing them to later review the progressive dismemberment of the chocolate saint.

Everything was coming along nicely and Jackie was already leaning forward in order to pick up a piece of red-tinted chocolate when Evelyn climbed one of the chairs, looked at what the grownups were doing and asked with displeasure "But, Dad, why are you murdering Santa?"

Uncle Charles froze -- the cleaver in his hand mid-way through Santa's sternum -- and looked in panic at his youngest daughter.

"Because it's after Christmas already," answered uncle Richard in a - by Rose's estimation - rather absentminded fashion. She heard one of the adults make a small whooshing sound of panicked inhale.

Fortunately for everyone the explanation seemed to satisfy the little elf and uncle Charles could proceed to cut the Santa up into edible chunks, if with less jocularity than he had presented before.

To add to the slight creepiness of the situation, Evelyn snatched a section of the Santa's head and spent the next twenty minutes nibbling on it with gusto. And making a lot of rather disgusting sounds.

Their family was decidedly weird.

Rose smiled and leaned back on the sofa, biting into one of the Santa's shoes.

It was very good chocolate.

 

####

 

A visit to the hospital freed Elizabeth of the cast and left her with a small, lightweight brace. And that in turn meant that on the thirty-first, early morning, she and William said their farewells to the family and drove to Lambton, where they switched to a rented car and turned towards to London.

"What do you think about Lydia?" she finally broke the silence as they joined the traffic on the highway. "I... I think she had improved significantly."

"She was markedly quiet. And Adele... Well, at the beginning she did behave as if she suspected us all of making fun of her, but on Wednesday she seemed as relaxed as the rest of the kids."

"I think being away from my parents did them a world of good," Elizabeth sighed. "Are you... I mean... About my parents..."

"Yes, they are still a pair of awful grumpy trolls, even from the distance of a week," he said decisively. "And I won't apologise for saying this."

She leaned back in her seat (not as comfortable as the Jaguar, by any means) and sighed.

"I hoped they would be different," she said, turning to the window. "I hoped they'd see how well everyone is together, how _we_ are together, how _good_ we are and that they'd just stop being so obtuse."

"Some people can't be reasoned with," he patted her knee blindly. "Now, get some sleep, love. It will be a nightmare on the plane, and the flight is three hours."

 

#

 

It was and it wasn't.

For one, William had sneakily upgraded their tickets to business class, which meant they had space, quiet (relative) and limited contact with their fellow passengers. And the flight was not that bad, as flights go, but still sleep was out of the question (the seats were nowhere as comfortable as the ones in their Jag, or even in the rental) and the changes in air pressure soon had Elizabeth searching her bag for ibuprofen, as he head started pounding in reaction.

Somewhere in economy a child reacted to these pressure changes by crying piteously and that didn't help at all, grating on her nerves terribly. Fortunately their descent at Helsinki wasn't interrupted in any way and pretty soon they were out, on the ground and retrieving their luggage.

"So, looking at the schedule Jane had written out for me, today we just have time to..." she frowned and then sighed in annoyance. "Yeah. Point one, switch your watch two hours forward. Our mobiles should do it by themselves..."

"Then we go to the hotel and get dressed up a bit," he interrupted her smoothly, "we have a table reserved in the restaurant on the top floor of our hotel, we will watch the city festivities from a safe distance, drink some champagne and then retire at a reasonable hour in order to venture out tomorrow. But first, let's pick up the car. It should be waiting for us already."

 

#

 

The restaurant offered a fascinating mix of Scandinavian and Russian dishes and trying to decipher the meaning behind their complicated names (and their English translations) took them most of the evening. Finally, by the time the dessert rolled around and they were faced with a small heap of varied sweets, the concert outside had started and they were settled with some tea, miniature cheesecakes, bilberry pies, almond shortbread, tiny star-shaped plum tarts and _blini_. The whole assortment was pleasant, even despite the fact that it was apparently offered with vodka - which they both hastily declined. Tea was good enough.

"And tomorrow, I suppose, we go for a walk?"

"Everything will be closed, so I think it will be a day for architecture," William agreed, sipping his tea. "Jane made some suggestions, for example the train station... Well, National Museum will be closed tomorrow, I suppose, but there are some areas of the town and several interesting churches that we could see."

"Then on Tuesday I have a strict order from Jane to go to the biggest local hypermarket available and check the home textile section, aisle by aisle. Not sure what she means, but I'm sure she has something specific in mind."

 

#

 

The light display was rather interesting, but as they retired to their room, Elizabeth felt the call of their bed was much stronger than her fascination with the colourful performance outside. Apparently, so did William.

"Are we becoming a middle-aged couple then?" she sighed into his arm as they burrowed under the covers and the city around them went crazy, celebrating the arrival of 2018. "No fun, early to bed..."

"I can definitely guarantee, Mrs Darcy, that going to bed with me is nowhere close to 'no fun'," he mock-growled as he pulled her flush to his body.

**Author's Note:**

> Find me on [my tumblr](https://srebrnafh.tumblr.com/).  
> [My writing blog.](https://fanfik.wordpress.com/)  
> [My handmade blog.](https://srebrna.wordpress.com/)


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